By virtue of its compact size, the desk's reduced footprint, typically eight seats in a provincial theatre also benefits a show like Summer Holiday. On a Friday and Saturday there is a bigger audience than seats available – being the crucial window where a touring production makes its money. At these peak times every seat liberated by the Digico desk is a direct benefit to the producer and theatre box office, enabling them to recoup the costs of the tour.
Theatre sound specialist, Orbital, has further underlined its commitment to digital solutions, deploying one of its Digico D5 mixing consoles on the UK tour of Richard Temple's sensational rock & roll musical – Summer Holiday.
Directed by Michael Gyngell, with choreography by Tony Award winning Gillian Gregory, this much loved British classic comedy stars Suzanne Shaw (Hear'Say) and Stefan Booth (Hollyoaks). Featuring many all-time greats such as Summer Holiday, Batchelor Boy and Livin' Doll, the show is destined for the West End following its Spring/Summer UK tour.
The system, designed by Orbital's Simon Whitehorn specifically to cater for the fast turnaround of provincial touring productions, centred on Digico's mixing console at FOH position. Operated by Gareth Owen, the desk proved to be an infinitely flexible and robust design tool.
Gareth explained:
" Digico have really pushed boundaries with the D5 – it has been a pleasure to work with the desk courtesy of Orbital. There were some challenging moments, but overall the desk provides an extremely flexible platform to operate a complex musical production. It is ideal for a touring production – very lightweight and easy to install. Also the multi-core system is a dream! The fibre optic is very robust having already survived eighteen weeks of abuse from local crew!"
With over one hundred programmed scenes, the desk was used to capacity with all but one of its 32 matrix outputs being deployed. In addition, 28 auxillary outputs, 16 group outputs and four directs outputs were used. Over 100 inputs were channelled through the desk from the orchestra, radio mics on stage, samplers and playback. In addition using the desk's onboard Midi facility, it also controls various sound modules for the band.
By virtue of its compact size, the desk's reduced footprint, typically eight seats in a provincial theatre also benefits a show like Summer Holiday. On a Friday and Saturday there is a bigger audience than seats available – being the crucial window where a touring production makes its money. At these peak times every seat liberated by the Digico desk is a direct benefit to the producer and theatre box office, enabling them to recoup the costs of the tour.
