Among LA’s premier rehearsal and backline facilities, Burbank-based CenterStaging provides production and technical support for television and live performance. Recently, the company took delivery of an M-5000 Ohrca Live Mixing Console from the Roland Professional A/V Division and has big plans for the console, both in its rehearsal studios and in the field as part of its backline rental arsenal.

‘As one of the top rehearsal and backline facilities, we have to be ready for a lot,’ says Will Kerlick, CenterStaging Business Manager. ‘Big acts come through here to rehearse in one of our studios before they go out on tour – that’s about half of our business, and the other half is backline rental. You could say our main niche is the TV market, so we provide gear to programs like American Idol, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, the Grammy Awards and a lot of other shows. The M-5000 is really going to help us on both sides of our business. Obviously it will be a real asset in our rehearsal studios, and it has the capability for broadcasting and streaming applications, which will be very important moving forward. It’s also very easy to see that this is a beautiful console – obviously a lot of thought went into it.’

‘As Audio Manager, I was attracted to the M-5000’s high number of inputs and outputs, which is more than we have with many of our other consoles,’ says CenterStaging’s Doug Dubin. ‘If we get a really big rehearsal in here, it’s the only console that we have that can really do anything over 48 inputs without having to bring in an outside sub-rental. I was also very impressed with its versatility in being used as an FOH console or a monitor console. The fact that it’s compatible with Dante and Madi and the rest, through the expansion cards, and that it has high resolution – that will all be really good for broadcast applications. Also, our guys picked it up with very minimal training.’