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DEE Digital Make D-Show Delectable
With both the flagship Digidesign Venue D-Show system and the compact D-Show Profile in their impressive rental stock, leading Belgian technology hire company, DEE Sound & Light, realise the benefit of maintaining an equipment fleet right at the cutting edge.
As proprietor Andre Schneider says, when his company is asked to pick up dates for bands like the Water Boys or the Sugarbabes in their local territory, and they have requested a D-Show digital mixing console on their rider, he has needed to be ready.
For this reason DEE have celebrated the purchase of their second Digidesign desk by setting up DEE Digital, the latest division of Andre’s expanding company, which is now touring far beyond the confines of Belgium. And he has made the two Digidesign Venue systems ultimately tourable by designing universal patch plates for the 48/24 Stage Racks that will allow any engineer or sub-renting production company to connect up to it.
With digital desks now attracting premium rental fees, touring systems (including the FOH and Stage racks) now need to be as transparent as possible, explains Schneider. Since their own trucking company, DEE Transport Service, is able to deliver proprietary equipment rapidly to all parts of Europe (under the umbrella of major Belgian transport firm, Dockx Transport) he believes he has hit on a winning formula.
A member of the Synco network, DEE Sound & Light have always been one of the most progressive dry hire companies in Belgium, says Stef de Pooter of Digidesign's Venue exclusive dealer and next door neighbours, Ampco Belgium (who share the same industrial estate facility in the town of Boom).
And when the latter move into their new purpose built premises opposite before the end of the year, DEE will inherit their old facility, and in so doing double in size.
After owning one of Antwerp's best known concert venues, Paradox, some 15 years ago, Andre Schneider started DEE after realising that there was more money to be made renting the equipment to clubs than running them. “Over the years we gradually started to undertake more and more work outside Belgium — particularly in Eastern Europe — and realised that our desks and stage racks also needed to be well flight-cased and touring-ready, in order to leave at any time and in any direction. Today only around 40% of our work is in Belgium, the other 60% is outside.”
The company also offers a full range of high-profile audio gear including Synco line arrays, analogue consoles, Prolyte trussing, Avolites, ETC and Vari-Lite lighting … as well as backline equipment; each department is colour-coded — for ease of administration.
“We are really aiming at customers who only need to rent two or three times a year,” he says. “Companies will not necessarily buy a console they will only need for two months.”
DEE Sound & Light purchased the first Venue system in the country 12 months ago when Belgian sound engineer Hassan Chaidi specified one for the Daniel Powter European tour. Nine months later they ordered the first compact D-Show Profile in Belgium, believing that the smaller desk would rent more easily to smaller theatres; by fitting the Stage Rack not only with patch plates but also an Uninterruptible Power Supply he knows he is onto a winner.
Ampco’s Stef de Pooter commends the enterprise, which was conceived by Johan Werbroek, DEE Sound & Light’s technical man after long discussions with Ampco Belgium. “This is an easy and comfortable way for rental companies to hook their analogue multicores into the patch panels rather than into the back of the console.
“No-one physically has to touch the stage rack — all the connections, including Firewire and USB, are on the patch panels in the back of the racks. If an engineer wants to bring in his own rack he can take a small multicore snake and just connect up — it’s fast and quick.”
Andre Schneider says this is the standard that DEE Digital will be setting for their entire digital console portfolio; meanwhile he is already planning to purchase a further Digidesign FOH rack, five DSP cards and a full suite of plug-ins to make the package more comprehensive.
In picture: Andre Schneider (right) with the customised Digidesign Stage Rack and Ampco Belgium’s Stef de Pooter.
9th May 2007
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