Allen & Heath digital mixers were once again in abundance at 2018’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, USA.
Mixers from the whole range were used in venues across the city, from corner bars and impromptu stages, right up to the British Embassy Music showcase which saw performances from rising stars like Che Lingo, Pale Waves and Idles, as well as established UK artists including Gaz Coombes and Frank Turner.
Hosted at Latitude 30, the British Music Embassy showcase sees a new act and engineer every 40-minutes, so having a system that combines ‘walk-up-and-mix’ usability with extensive built-in processing is essential to the smooth running of the event.
To accomplish this, British production company, Cato Music, installed an Allen & Heath dLive C3500 system and 2 S3000 systems to cover FOH, monitors and house continuity. Another important aspect of the system was to provide a multi-track recording feed via Dante for the BBC, which broadcast extensive highlights of British Music Embassy shows.
Ant Forbes, General Manager at Cato Music, said: “dLive is perfect for SXSW. It’s fast, flexible and incredibly easy for engineers to walk up to and get to grips with, even if they’ve never used one before. Combine that with the great onboard FX and processing and the overall audio quality and it’s hard to imagine what could’ve done the job better.”
Leon Phillips, Allen & Heath’s Head of Live Sound & Touring, added: “Across the board, engineers at SXSW loved dLive. Thanks to a fast workflow, with drag-and-drop layouts and the intuitive tap-and-turn interface, dLive has firmly established itself as the ‘go-to’ system for these kinds of rapid-pace festival-format events where engineers need to stroll up and get a great mix in seconds.”