Eleonora Zouganeli’s summer 2020 Namaste tour of her native Greece, saw Allen & Heath systems at both ends of the digital snake at the heart of the sound system used in 1,500–2,500 capacity outdoor venues, navigating the challenges of changing government directives and local interpretations of the restrictions.
Zouganeli’s longstanding FOH engineer, Brian Coon specified the mixing system, which was supplied by rental company, Backstage Services. A dLive DM48 MixRack provided a split over A&H’s GigaAce protocol to a dLive S5000 surface on monitors and a compact SQ-7 console at FOH. The SQ-7 had a full DPack upgrade, allowing Coon to use many of his preferred dLive processing models.
Having worked with other industry-standard consoles in the past, A&H has become Coon’s console of choice: ‘I have been trying to use Allen & Heath consoles since I first encountered dLive three years ago,’ he explains. ‘I immediately loved the sound, the workflow, the effects and the compressors, dynamic EQs and everything. The monitor engineer hadn’t encountered the current generation of A&H mixers before this tour and he was also very pleased with the sound, the headroom and the effects. Our artist noticed the difference right away too.’
The channel count for singer Zouganeli and her five backing musicians totalled 32, including four channels for the main vocalist (AES, analogue, spare and comms channels). All five members of the backing band had detailed control over their own monitor mixes using ME-1 personal mixers, fed from the DM48, allowing monitor engineer, Dimitris Samaras to focus his attention on Zouganeli’s mix. All the performers were on IEMs, supplemented by a pair of side fills and vocal monitors as a backup.
Eleonora Zouganeli’s annual tours have become as much a part of the Greek summer as Retsina. Like so many tours that have braved the uncertain summer of 2020, the artists and crew have had to deal with the ups and downs of sell-out shows mixed with cancellations and postponements. Through it all, Brian and rest of the crew worked hard to deliver a first-class live experience for the performers and audiences.
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