Music Director and Musicians Reach New Heights of Communication
DENVER, CO, OCTOBER 7, 2008 — With the presidential election at the center of the nation's attention, delivering a technically perfect production for a major party convention is of paramount importance. The recent task at hand for Paul Wittman, Monitor Supervisor of ATK Audiotek of Valencia, CA, was to provide flawless and reliable communication and monitoring between the music director and the band who performed at this year’s Democratic National Convention. The solution was the implementation of an Aviom Pro16® system.
"Audiotek migrated over to Aviom for the many high-profile events we work on because the fundamental design flexibility offered by Aviom allows us to accomplish even the most difficult monitoring and communication situations," says Andres Arango, staff engineer at Audiotek. "We now have a system that is straightforward to set up, gives the musicians individual control over their monitor mixes and is easily scalable to handle any production."
The signal flow for this event consisted of two elements: communication and monitor mixing. All band members were fed audio from the music director and the program from a live truck that was covering the event for the major networks. Additionally, the on-air mix was also included so the music director, Ray Chew, could hear what the performance sounded like as well as communicate with the director of the event. What makes Aviom the system of choice is its ability to distribute communication channels and music stems to all locations with local control.
In addition to the Aviom gear, Chew used a Studio Technologies Model 233 Announcer’s Console as the main intercom interface for the Democratic Convention. The announcer console’s output was fed into the Aviom Pro16 system along with mix stems from the main console for the band’s monitor system. Each instrument section had an Aviom A-16II Personal Mixer which was able to drive wedge monitors, wireless and headphone connections through Tweecomm OB-1 headset boxes that offered level control and two headphone connections.
"Because the Aviom system is so scalable, we can make the system as large as it needs to be," says Arango. "The necessity of a smooth show at a high profile political convention is essential. Underlying the pressure for audio perfection is the need for instant communication between the show director, the music director and the musicians. The Aviom system delivers this capability with excellent audio quality."
Aviom is the world leader and pioneer of personal monitor mixing technology with the popular Pro16® Series, as well as the exclusive developer of the revolutionary Pro64® Series of audio networking products. All Aviom products are powered by A-Net®, the company's groundbreaking high-speed digital audio transmission protocol. Aviom products solve problems in a variety of different environments, including live sound reinforcement, audio recording studios, houses of worship, theater, broadcasting and post-production facilities and a host of commercial installations. Aviom's entire line of high-quality professional audio products is designed and manufactured in the USA.
