Jacco van der Heijden, managing director of Stagelight said, "For us, SSL complemented our own strategy of always delivering to the highest possible standards: A global reputation for excellence, teamwork, and reliability are key to Stagelight operations. We had to find a brand that would fit with our high-quality inventory. SSL delivered."
Robert de Lorijn is senior project manager audio for Stagelight. He is also the FOH Engineer for Matt Simons - a US Artist who has found a large following in The Netherlands and who provided the first opportunity for De Lorijn to use the L500 on a big stage. In a single weekend Simons played the Brussels Summer Festival (Belgium) and the Strandfestival Zand (Netherlands) to a total of 35,000 people.
"We had already done rehearsals and pre-programming with the console, but of course it's always a different thing when the audience is there," reports De Lorijn. "You get the chance to compare your sound with the other bands, compare it to the sound you are used to on another console, and you get to see the reactions of the other engineers - The SSL made a big impression."
Two of the Stagelight L500s are going out on a long tour with the Dutch Royal Airforce Orchestra (Orkest Koninklijke Luchtmacht). The other two consoles, an L500 and an L300, have immediately become part of Stagelight's primary hire stock - and Stagelight is already busy training freelance engineers.
"At the moment we are running short training sessions almost every day for top Dutch engineers," explains De Lorijn. "If the desk is already prepared for them, we can get them working in just a few minutes. When I explain how to prep' it themselves - starting with a blank file, building the console the way they want it to be, and starting a mix - the training takes between 30 and 45 minutes, which is really fast."
(Jim Evans)
