China’s spectacular 60th anniversary celebrations have EAD sound with DiGiCo
1st October saw China stage a spectacular 60th anniversary National Day Parade in the capital Beijing. As a country with a great history and a great tradition for both producing and using the latest technology, three of DiGiCo’s latest generation consoles were a fitting choice to mix the audio for this most important event.
Eastern Acoustic Development Ltd (EAD) worked with the client to support this event by providing one SD7 and two SD8 consoles. “This was a vast and hugely important event - both nationally and internationally, so excellent sound quality, flexible, fast operation and guaranteed stability were key requirements,“ says Only Wang, EAD technical manager.
“More than anything, the event was so high profile that complete reliability was essential - nothing could be allowed to go wrong, so we had full redundancy to cover for any potential problems.”
The two SD8s were used for main system mixing, monitoring and audio for various video and lighting sections in the city’s Tiananmen Square. Incoming signals were split and both feeds went to both consoles, which were used in mirror mode, the second SD8 providing full redundancy for the main one.
“The chief sound engineer, Mr LI Anzhen, was amazed by the flexibility of the SD8, especially working with the tablet PC, remote control software. With each speaker hang located a considerable distance from each of the others, he was able to use a tablet to walk around the large area that the system was covering, applying delay and EQ as necessary to get the perfect sound for both the live event and the televised coverage,” Only continues.
“We had two hours in which to set up the system and, without the wireless control, that would not have been anywhere near enough time.”
Meanwhile, the SD7 was used for mixing microphone inputs and pre-recorded music for feeds to further video and lighting installations and the national flag guards in the southern part of Chang An Street. Located in the eastern part of Tiananmen Square, the console used its own, onboard redundancy to ensure total reliability for the event.
As with the SD8, here audio engineer Mr. LI Ran controlled the SD7 via WiFi when setting up the system.
“Mr LI really likes the SD7’s macro key, because it meant he could customise functions and make the console quicker to use,” Only continues. “As with the SD8, being able to control the console wirelessly meant that setting up of the system was very fast.”
Because of the way the Chinese authorities were running the event, security considerations meant that the audio teams could only stay in their assigned areas. This had serious potential consequences for the audio staff, because using wireless communication during the event itself was impossible due to the huge number of frequencies in use.
But the DiGiCo consoles came to the rescue - communications were very straightforward via the fibre optics of the audio lines and the built-in communications facilities of the SD7 and SD8, enhancing the working efficiency of the systems even further.
“The 60th Anniversary National Day Parade was a huge marketing opportunity for both the consoles and the overall DiGiCo brand in the Chinese market,” says Only.
“The SD7 and SD8 performed flawlessly, which was great as the event received global coverage. We are looking forward to using them on many more shows, with even greater confidence about the quality and reliability of DiGiCo!”
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