Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana is devoted to training the future leaders of the Wesleyan Church. Founded in 1920, the Universities mission was to provide a faith-based education to Wesleyan students, a mission that remains true today.
Indiana Wesleyan University’s 3,600-seat chapel/auditorium serves as the central gathering place for worship, major performances, convocations, commencement ceremonies, and three weekly chapel services.
“During our Annual Fall Academic Convocation in September, our mixing system quit passing audio several times during the program,” states Phil Huber, Director Sound, Lighting & Media Group, Indiana Wesleyan University. “There is never a good time for a console to fail, and having one fail in front of the campus community and a full house wasn’t acceptable. After some extensive troubleshooting, we decided the best course of action would be to replace the console instead of sending it to be refurbished.
Spectrum Sound, Inc. (Nashville) recommended a new Yamaha RIVAGE PM10 Digital Audio Console to replace the aging console system. “Replacing the console was a major step up for the university,” states Barry Sanders, Sales Manager, Spectrum Sound. “The PM10 was chosen for its obvious benefits: input and output options, form factor, remote stage rack, as well as the Yamaha workflow.”
Since this was an emergency purchase decision, Huber said they had many options to consider in a short amount of time. “Knowing we had to act quickly, a close friend referred us to Barry Sanders who set us up with a console shoot out in about three days.”
“We gave Spectrum a list of the requirements in order to help us find the correct console,” notes Huber. “The system had to have a surface workflow that could satisfy the needs of a wide range of duties and operators from students who are just learning the craft to professional audio engineers. It had to be able to work not only with its own transport protocol but others as well (MADI, AVB, proprietary) since we use Dante to archive multi-track recordings, interface with our TV station’s production truck, and with networked audio throughout the building. We also needed a console that could support Aviom systems for our on-stage IEM on setup, channel count, and stage box options. During the summer months, the university hosts a wide variety of conferences and camps so those requirements needed to be taken into consideration.”
Sanders had the university team visit Spectrum’s shop to evaluate a total of nine consoles. “While using our criteria,” adds Huber, “we decided to narrow it down to our top two picks and a budget friendly choices. On our way home, we discussed our choices”, Huber says. “During the discussions, the PM10 kept coming to the front for several reasons: it was a natural progression as we are already familiar with the Yamaha family of consoles and their lifecycle, manufacturer support, the channel counts and flexibility of I/O options, not to mention the ability to use our existing Rio stage boxes for additional channel counts when needed. Also, the extremely high Dante channel counts not found with many other manufacturers’ consoles would allow us to easily interface with our production truck, as well as to bring our Yamaha CL3 in if we needed a monitor desk.”
Huber said the PM10 workflow was the one thing that really impressed them with the options and how naturally and flexible the console is to work. “Having the capabilities to have multiple mixers working at one time is the best! With the number of student operators, we have a fear of them doing a button click and loosing their surface, so having inputs land on a physical fader then to a user defined setup was a huge plus.”
When the university team arrived back at the school, Huber said he made only one recommendation at which point, the team was given approval to arrange an on-site demo. “As soon as we had audio going through the system, we knew immediately the Yamaha PM10 console was absolutely the correct choice.”
“Student volunteers are trained on and use the systems as well as professional staff and travelling engineers so a familiar workflow is important,” says Sanders. “High sound quality was another plus with the PM10, and with several different bands taking part in the worship services, the flexible scene recalls are quite helpful.”
The University also houses a Yamaha CL5 with two Rio3224-D stage boxes in their 1,152-seat Phillippe Auditorium and a Yamaha CL3 that serves as a monitor/portable desk along with a Rio3224-D and Rio1608-D. Huber said they would also be installing a Yamaha QL1 in their new football stadium with a Rio1608-D this spring.
Immediately after the first show with their PM10 console, Huber said audience members didn’t know we had switched consoles and were asking why all the mixes sounded so good. “We didn’t change what we were doing, it was the desk!”
Since 1979, Nashville-based Spectrum Sound has been providing concert production and rental services to some of the biggest names in country, Christian, rock and beyond. Certainly one of the reasons for its success over the years has been the company’s firm commitment to providing what Founder Ken Porter calls “best-in-class equipment”—a collection that has once again expanded thanks to Spectrum’s recent addition of six new DiGiCo SD12 mixing consoles and four additional SD-Racks.
This latest purchase complements Spectrum’s already impressive DiGiCo inventory previously comprising four S21, six SD10 and a dozen SD9 consoles, as well as 15 SD-Racks and eight D-Racks.
“The SD12 fits into our rental inventory very well,” says Live Sound Accounts Manager Bobby George, who has been with Spectrum for the past eight years. “We have a fair amount of touring clients that use DiGiCo and we feel that this console will be a natural fit for them as they move up from other DiGiCo platforms.”
George notes that the SD12s have already been put into service on a number of festivals, tours and one-off events—including two large Harvest Christian Fellowship events with Greg Laurie at Anaheim’s Angel Stadium and University of Phoenix Stadium, which used four desks to run FOH and monitors on A and B stage setups for a variety of Contemporary artists like David Crowder, Lecrae, Jeremy Camp, NEEDTOBREATHE, Phil Wickham, MercyMe and others. Each console was paired with its own SD-Rack, connected via fiber, and equipped with a full complement of Waves plugins.
“The first thing that every engineer has told us as they’ve walked up to the SD12 for the first time is that they really like the double screens compared to the SD10, SD9 and SD8, especially on a board this compact,” he says. “Many of them have also commented on the angle of the screens, saying that it improves visibility. The screens make setting up and operating the desk super-easy while providing fast access to the most important parameters for on-the-fly adjustments during the show. We’ve had a great success rate with them so far and all of the engineers have been very happy.”
“To me, the SD12 feels like the next logical step within the SD product line, and once you combine that with the new 32-bit mic pres, it’s a real winner,” George adds. “Add to that the exceptional service we’ve always received from Group One, DiGiCo’s US distributor, and it made perfect sense to add these new desks to our rental inventory.”
Sara Bareilles used Spectrum Sound for her recent tour. Read the entire story in Live Sound Magazine February 2012.
FOH Engineer: Trey Smith
Monitor Engineer: Kevin Twist
Gear included a Midas PRO9 at FOH, a Venue Profile at monitors, and d&b M4 wedges.
Spectrum Sound provided sound for a record-breaking 42,000 college-age attendees in the Georgia Dome.
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