Located midway between Montreal and Québec City in Canada, the Cogeco Amphitheatre has installed a pair of Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing consoles, integrating them into its existing Dante network infrastructure. The aim if to future-proof the venue against the mounting processing requirements of shows coming through and to improve the performance of the house sound system.

‘The SSL Live consoles combine all the features we need for our future development,’ confirms Technical Director, Daniel Savoie. ‘The integrated Dante routing and management was a critical aspect for us because our network is already built for Dante, and we want to build on this flexible network system for efficiency and proven stability. We also needed to double our mixing capabilities because production requirements are always growing.’

The consoles are connected to the venue’s network via a pair of X-Light Bridges, SSL’s high-channel-count Dante interface, which provides routing that is managed using the console software. Audio is routed and stored within a showfile, supporting the three SSL SuperAnalogue SB 32.24 Dante stageboxes and other third-party Dante-enabled units within the facility.

The Cogeco Amphitheatre operates in two configurations, depending on the season. During winter, the 600-capacity Le Cabaret venue is created on the main stage, where a single L550 Plus handles both FOH and monitors. In the summertime, the amphitheatre can accommodate 8,500 people outdoors, and the consoles are typically used for front-of-house and monitors, subject to each production’s requirements.

‘SSL’s reputation for sound quality and legendary precise audio reproduction were a given,’ says Sound Manager, Nicolas Ouimet. ‘The L550 Plus has a small footprint, with enough faders to comfortably handle any show. The terrific amount of processing capabilities included with the Plus licence was a huge upgrade that enables us to handle any kind of production, including live orchestral events.’

The features and functionality of the L550 Plus are already proving beneficial: ‘The Query function is a nice and simple way to quickly access members feeding an audio bus, assign to a VCA, and doing it all without using the touchscreen,’ says Sound Manager Patrice Gagnon. ‘For us, stems are a game changer in terms of flexibility and a true contemporary innovation, enabling us to meet more complex mixing needs compared to traditional bus path logic. The surface and its knobs are highly customisable to meet the needs of both monitor and front-of-house engineers, and the fader layers are highly effective. The full processing path signal chain is very flexible and the feed points to the bus give you a lot of control over how and where sources are filtered and processed. Plus, there are always four ways to accomplish any task.

‘Everything seems to be more transparent and dynamic, and timbres are way more alive,’ he continues. ‘The reproduction of the bass lines and every high-end harmonic contributes to a more detailed and precise mix. It’s not about what’s in the brochure; when you feel it, you know that the audience will feel it too.’

The new desks replace an older mixing system, offering benefits beyond their onboard capabilities: ‘We quickly realised that all our Dante devices could benefit from this addition allowing us to multiply the mixing and routing capacity of the entire Dante audio network and amplify the audio possibilities of the Amphithéâtre Cogeco,’ Savoie says. ‘The combined value of the networked devices arguably exceeds the sum of their individual contributions.’

Flexibility and easy integration with the venue’s Dante network and switches were crucial to take input from the Shure wireless mic receivers, send monitor feeds to the amplifiers or send the main mix to the Lake LM44 processors feeding the PA amps.

‘The L550 Plus combined with the X-Light Bridge Dante interface provides the console with 256 I/O channels at 96kHz. With the integrated Live Dante Expander card built into the console, an additional 32 I/O channels are provided with a sample rate converter from 48kHz to 96kHz. This allows us to continue to benefit from our devices that run at 48kHz. And now we are 96kHz from preamps to final D/A conversion at the PA amps.’

The new system also offers enhanced capabilities when combined with the older mix system, limited to 48kHz, which can accept audio from the L550 or work in parallel. ‘The SSL SB 32.24 stageboxes can output two different sample rates simultaneously,’ Savoie says. ‘Network A is used to share 96kHz Dante inputs. Network B is used as a sample rate converted digital split from the same preamps at 48kHz. In this way, all sources from SB 32.24 are routable with both sample rates simultaneously on the Dante network, without requiring additional devices. The setup gives us the choice to record directly from the stage racks at 48kHz or 96kHz and/or playback from DVS at 48kHz or 96kHz.’

More: www.solidstatelogic.com