Arguably one of the most prestigious tours of 2015, the 23-date Autour de la Guitare showcased the guitar playing of the likes of Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Johnny Clegg, Axel Bauer, Paul Personne, Dan Ar Braz, Michael Jones, JM Ecay and Nono Krief under the leadership of French guitarist JF Lalanne. This ‘super band’ performed at Zénith Arenas across France and Belgium.
Chosen as the FOH console by tour production company Silence!, Roland’s M-5000 Ohrca Digital Mixing Console was favoured for its intuitive workflow, flexible architecture, sound quality and compact footprint. FOH Engineer Manu Guiot (designer of the Notre Dame de Paris musical among other high-profile projects) was at the helm of the desk for the tour.
‘It was the first time that I had seen or used the Roland M-5000, and my initial impression was good and that in comparison to other consoles at this end of the market that I had used before it was right up there,’ he reports. ‘The console includes some really good features and after messing around with it and trying it out I found that I really liked it. The M-5000 had a good sound and was easy to use’.
The M-5000 managed 64 audio channels delivered from I/O boxes on the stage using two stereo and a mono output. Inputs from the band on stage were provided by the Roland S-4000S-3208 Digital Snake (32x8 Modular Stage Unit), connected via Cat5e cable at 96kHz using REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication). The M-5000 has two REAC ports, which allow I/O boxes to be added. A third REAC port can be used for connecting to monitors or recording. On the Autour de la Guitare tour, this third port was used to connect to the Roland R-1000 stand-alone recorder. With up to 300 inputs and 296 outputs available on the M-5000 (and more at 48kHz), each managed in separate patchbays, any input can be patched to any or multiple outputs without having to be patched through a mixing channel.
Working alongside Silence! on the tour preparation, Thomas Delory from Roland Central Europe commented, ‘both FOH and System Engineers were highly satisfied, confident and proud to work with the new M-5000. In fact, Silence! have already decided to specify the M-5000 for a second classical live show Fauteuil d’Orchestre and for possible television production work in the future’.
