Broadcast and technical production services specialist, RemotePro.Live, took care of the recording and broadcast of iHeartCountry Festival – a major undertaking that required best-in-class fidelity, major network quality and very quick turnaround times.
Broadcast Audio Capture was fed from the Steel Mill in Nashville to music mixer John Harris in Philadelphia via Remote Production Group’s proprietary RFN Network Tunnels directly into his ProTools and monitoring systems. RPG recorded 64 channels locally with full redundancy while John remotely mixed and monitored via public high speed internet. In this way he was able to build and refine mixes during line checks, sound checks and performance capture. For the on-site recording at The Steel Mill, Remote Pro deployed a number of DiGiGrid units.
The use of the LV1/DiGiGrid-based system gave the engineers independent (of ProTools) control and monitoring capabilities for a true multi-operator workflow. With the DLI bridging the connection from the SoundGrid world into the industry standard ProTools DAW environment, and the recording process taking full advantage of the quality of DiGiGrid’s preamps, the solution provided an efficient and cost-effective way to place high channel counts of microphones into ProTools, with the benefit of the network for routing and redundant recording.
Scott Pederson, President and Managing Partner at RemotePro explained: “Remote Pro chose DiGiGrid components because of their fidelity, modularity and systemic flexibility over multiple protocols – analog (split) BNC MADI, M/X32 card formats and more. As added bonuses, Waves’ new FIT controller and SoundGrid Studio’s PFL buss (completely independent of ProTools) enabled true multi operator workflow with simultaneous ProTools (primary) and Reaper (backup) recording feeds, while also providing multiple discrete, client-controllable reference outputs for embed into video and stakeholder proofing.”
Amidst all the detailed discussion of the technical elements involved in the show, mix engineer John Harris offers succinct appraisal: “What’s most important, though, is the sound. The kit sounds fantastic and with this calibre of artist, audio quality is key. The resulting systems are top tier, and were looking forward to deploying them to the world again and again.”
Dan Page, Brand Manager at DiGiGrid commented: “It’s great to see our products being used to such great advantage in a setting like this, offering a straightforward solution in such a large and prestigious production. The scalability and flexibility of our range offers pretty much unlimited freedom. Whether it’s a challenging multi-stakeholder, professional situation such as this, or a one-man band operating in a small home studio, the quality is the same. RemotePro did a fantastic job in helping to ensure that the iHeartCountry Festival was a great success in what were unusual and challenging circumstances.”