BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/08/2007

DiGiCo D5s Bring Versatility to Vitebsk

Recently the subject of a major refurbishment and updating, which saw the installation of an overall roof and completely new technical specification, the 6250-capacity Summer Amphitheatre in the city of Vitebsk, Belarus, was the main venue for the Slavianski Bazaar In Vitebsk, a major cultural festival that ran from 5th-14th July.

Slavianski Bazaar In Vitebsk is a major event, holding tremendous regional importance, having won International Federation of Festival Organizations (FIDOF) awards. Slavianski Bazaar was a host of the 39th Annual FIDOF Assembly in 2004.

A major part of the new technical infrastructure installed by Art Ramos Studio (ARS), the audio contractor for the venue, is a pair of DiGiCo D5 consoles, one at front of house, the other at the monitor position and both were immediately put to work for up to 17 hours a day at the festival.

The Slavianski Bazaar is a major cultural event, attracting artists from around the world and focusing attention on Belarus' importance as a centre for the performing arts. DiGiCo's Rob Andrews spent some time at the beginning of the festival, providing training on the consoles for local engineers.

"It's a superb venue and the recent refurbishment has provided a technical specification that's one of the best in Europe," says Rob. "As well as the consoles, two stage racks, two local racks and an extra rack for broadcast have been installed, giving 112 inputs at FOH and 56 outputs for broadcast."

With the refurbishment paid for by the Belarus government and President Alexander Lukashenko attending the opening ceremony of the Slavianski Bazaar, nothing less than absolutely reliability was demanded from the new consoles.

Alongside this, the variety of artists that the consoles would have to work with and the fact that they would be, at times, in the hands of relatively inexperienced operators, it was also vital that the chosen desks had to be able to deal with that in an intuitive, user friendly manner.

"The artists at the festival are extremely varied and of a uniformly high standard," says Rob. "They range from dance troupes through pop and rock singers, Eurovision performers, orchestras, jazz bands and, of course, the lavish opening and closing ceremonies. So the consoles had to be quickly and easily reconfigured."

There is also the matter of the sheer length of time that the D5s are in use - the acts for any given day do a technical rehearsal at 9.30am, then it's straight into the entertainment itself which can go on to 3am the following day.

"The D5s have been worked extremely hard and have certainly acquitted themselves very well," says Rob. "At the festival they have been used by everyone except one act and the response has been universally positive. Many engineers commented on how intuitive the consoles are to use.

"The system in general (completed by an L-Acoustics V-DOSC PA) has been very well-received and everybody is extremely happy with the audio quality."

As each engineer finished their set, they were asked to comment and give marks for the system. "All but two or three gave 10 out of 10, with the others 8s and 9s," says Rob. "And I know one of those engineers, who will only ever give himself an 8 anyway!"

Although part of the Summer Amphitheatre infrastructure, the D5s will also be used on other major events throughout Belarus. Demand for dry hire of the consoles at major concerts is also likely to be high, meaning that Belarus can look forward to many events featuring the versatility and audio quality provided by the DiGiCo consoles over the coming years.

"The government of Belarus gives tremendous support to the performing arts," says Valery Streltsov, director of ARS. "By investing heavily in the Summer Amphitheatre, including the purchase of the DiGiCo consoles, they have demonstrated their total commitment to providing the very best facilities for the country's entertainment professionals and maximum enjoyment for audiences.

Source:

http://news.etnow.com/etnews.nsf/0/05a6fd41956335728025733d0050ce30?OpenDocument

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