Aviom, the world leader in personal monitor mixing technology, was an important element in the audio system for the production of Love In: The Musical, a theatrical celebration of the music of 1967 featuring legendary artists recently held at Birch North Park Theatre in San Diego.
The event featured the award-winning Pro16 personal mixing system, with an Aviom digital snake distributing all of the mixes to a Yamaha PM5D console outfitted with an AVIOM16/o-Y1 A-Net® Interface Card.
Adams Entertainment, who also produced last year‘s live documentary/concert Primal Twang: The History of the Guitar, filmed the Love In performances for commercial release in 2008. That meant that the show‘s audio producer, Henry Austin of Professional Production Associates, had to design a system that would serve the needs of both the live and recorded elements of the production.
“I selected Aviom for this mission-critical gig for several reasons,” Austin explained. “Traditional monitor wedges will typically cause an inordinate amount of leakage from the stage and the cumulative effect of this leakage ruins the recording process and negatively impacts the FOH audio quality as well. My design integrated acrylic shields and sound absorbent material and this contributed greatly to the separation and clarity of the live mix and recording. Without the Aviom personal mixing system, these additional isolations would not have been noticed.”
Austin also explained how the Aviom personal mixing system worked well in conjunction with the Future Sonics in-ear monitoring system chosen for the project. “The Future Sonics IEMs compliment the Aviom output circuit and really sound ‘Hi-Fi.‘ It was this combination that helped sell the idea to the artists, who were unfamiliar with the technology. Once they heard it, they were sold. Each band member could control his personal blend, which allowed Bob Meyers, the monitor engineer, to focus on the wireless mixes.”
For Meyers, Love In provided an opportunity for him to discover a new technology that helped make his life easier. “As a professional Monitor Engineer for the past 25 years, it's great to see new technology that actually helps simplify things and make monitor mixing easier instead of just complicating the issue,” said Meyers. “Once the musicians got comfortable with their in-ear monitors and saw how simple it was to adjust what I was sending digitally to their Aviom mixers, they had very few adjustments for me to make. Plus, with numerous musician changes and some complete band changes, the only way this worked was using the presets on the mixers. With everything else going on between bands, I don't think it would have been possible to pull this off without the use and reliability of the Aviom system.”
The ease of set-up and new level of control provided by the Aviom system made the shows a great experience for all involved, from the players to the producers to the engineers working on the project.
“Director Anthony Adams requested that the stage have a ‘clean, uncluttered appearance‘ and the size and footprint of the little blue Aviom mixers helped create a spacious look for the film,” added Austin, who also produced the audio for Primal Twang. “Plus, the power to each mixer is carried with the signal in a small Cat 5 run and, again, kept the stage looking dressed and pristine.”
For a veteran audio professional like Henry Austin, discovering Aviom has been a revelation. “I find it ironic and amusing that some of the larger audio manufacturers continue to boast louder and louder monitors capable of cutting through a wall of guitar amps. It is these same companies that also hold seminars on system setup and optimization. But a great sound system with the best FOH engineer can be tuned to the 9's, and if there is too much leakage on the stage, it will sound terrible. I am thankful for the invention of Aviom. This is a welcome tool that is long overdue.”
For more information, visit www.aviom.com. For more on the event, visit www.loveinthemusical.com.
Aviom is the world leader and pioneer of personal monitor mixing technology with the popular Pro16 Series, as well as the exclusive developer of the revolutionary Pro64 Series of audio networking products. All Aviom products are powered by A-Net®, the company‘s groundbreaking high-speed digital audio transmission protocol. Aviom products solve problems in a variety of different environments, including live sound reinforcement, audio recording studios, houses of worship, theater, broadcasting and post-production facilities and a host of commercial installations. Aviom‘s entire line of high-quality professional audio products are designed and manufactured in the USA.