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Eclipse features Midas PRO6 at Trackside Festival
November saw the Australian release of the new Midas digital mixing system. The week prior to its Australian launch a PRO6 system was shown off at ‘Trackside' festival in Canberra by leading ACT production company ‘Eclipse Lighting and Sound'. This system was at FOH on the mainstage which featured a line up of well known Aussie bands; ‘The Panics', ‘Gyroscope', ‘Cut Copy' and ‘The Living End'. To facilitate the first gig in Australia for a PRO6 local product manager Phill Webb was on hand to set the console up and provide support to the respective band engineers who all had their first experience of Midas digital. Patched into the PRO6 to provide some comfort to engineers was a DN360 equaliser across FOH with a well-known tap delay also patched though all engineers did use the consoles internal effects as well. Gyroscope and Living End engineer also inserted his favourite analogue outboard which included a Midas XL42 pre-amp.
The PRO6 was well received by all engineers with all expressing the desire to mix on one again. As with all Midas product the audio performance was superb with punters and organizers alike raving about how good the show was. Coupled with other reports from overseas Midas digital is considered by those who use it as the best sounding digital in the market with some even claiming it sounds better than Midas analogue.
Eclipse production manager Chris Shackleton was particularly complimentary about how well the console worked, noting that only having to fly two Cat-5e cables (with one as redundant) certainly made life easier than having to fly traditional copper multicores. Chris was also appreciative of the support provided by Australian Midas distributor Bosch Communication Systems in having a console tech on hand to oversee its first gig: "one less thing I had to worry about" said Chris.
The PRO6 encompasses the same technology as used in its big brother the XL8 with the console layout and navigation being very similar, to the point where engineers would have no problem jumping from one to the other. As is traditional with Midas product redundancy in the PRO6 is a real feature with the three main components (surface, dsp and I/O) having redundant power supplies. The PRO6 also as the ability to interface directly with the XL8 system as well as its individual hardware (Split input racks, I/O and hard disk recorder and fader remote) making it a particularly versatile and expandable system.
Trackside also benefited from other Midas product with the outside stage being equipped with a Verona and Siena. Both indoor and outside systems featured Klark Teknik control (Helix EQ, Square ONE EQ and Dynamics) and processing (DN9848). The main system also featured Square ONE splits to maintain the sonic performance of the system.
The speaker and amplifier system for the gig was from Midas sister companies Electro Voice and Dynacord with eight XLC DVX cabinets per side with fourteen X-Subs all powered from Dynacord H5000 power amplifiers. In addition the foldback system consisted of EV XN cabinets as side fills with wedges being Dynacord M15 boxes.
In picture: The Panics' engineer Brendon - first engineer to mix on PRO6 in Australia.
12th December 2008
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