latest news headlines

Asnières gears up with Innovason

There aren't many municipalities that have either the wherewithal or the technical expertise to run a full A/V department, but the town of Asnières sur Seine just outside Paris, has both. After extensive research and bench-testing, the Mairie d'Asnières (Town Hall) finally decided upon a brand new Innovason Sy80 digital mixing console to complete their AV inventory.

Thierry Plenier, who runs the AV department with department head William Baruch, has been familiar with Innovason since the beginning, and has followed the company's technical development with interest. "I was fascinated by the Muxipaire (digital snake) when it first came out, and when we bought our first digital console in 2002, if I'd had the budget, I'd have bought a Compact Live! As it was, we went for another solution, which has served us well until now, but we are reaching the ceiling of its limitations in terms of mix capacity, and our analogue console just doesn't offer us the flexibility we need to handle monitors."

Having strong relationships with a number rental companies, Plenier was therefore able to try out just about everything the market had to offer in terms of digital consoles. "In every case the compromises were simply too numerous to justify the outlay - not enough flexibility, outdated systems, cumbersome control surface, plus we really didn't want to get into scrolling through pages of scenes to find what we needed in the mix, nor did we want to be limited in terms of stereo mixes. We were also looking for EtherSound network capability.

"We'd seen nothing so far that really jumped out at us, until I contacted Innovason. Sales and marketing director Xavier Pion and technical guru Matthieu Le Failler brought along an Sy48 and an Sy80, and after just a few hours of demos and testing, I and my technical team were all completely sold! We opted for an Sy80 equipped with 48 preamps and 24 outputs, and in 2009 we are planning to invest in an LX6464ES sound card for multitrack digital recording, and some AES input cards.

"So what do we love about the Sy80?" continued Plenier. "From a technical point of view, first and foremost, the is sound quality, universally acknowledged as excellent, if not the best there is. Secondly, to our huge delight, you don't have to configure your patch to the console, but you can adapt your console to the patch - we are no longer limited by the architecture of the console, because you can designate any function to any fader. It's just fantastic... Finally, the speed and flexibility of the software, and the quality of the effects makes this console very easy to work on, and the quality of what you can achieve is just magnificent. From a commercial point of view, the fact that Innovason consoles are so easy to operate makes them a real godsend when we've got visiting engineers, because they are usually up and running in no time. We're also seeing Innovason appearing on more and more French riders, which merely confirms our view that the Sy80 is the perfect console for us in every way."

In picture: Thierry Plenier, Jamel Ilekti, Ghislain Dubroca and William Baruch (head of the AV department).

News Type:

latest news headlines

Asnières gears up with Innovason

12th January 2009

HEADLINES

news archive

search stories