Kenai, Alaska (September 14, 2026)—Kenai, Alaska is likely best known for its fishing (the largest king salmon ever caught—over 97 pounds—was reeled in there), and that makes it a must-see destination for fishing tourism. Where there’s tourism, there’s entertainment and Kenai-based Koch Sound provides audio for events throughout the region, ranging from outdoor festivals to EDM performances to regional touring productions.
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Led by owner Alex Koch (pronounced “cook”), the company’s audio offerings center around multiple Allen & Heath consoles, chosen to match different use cases, be they local community events or large fests.
The company’s inventory includes an Avantis as well as a CQ-18T, often opting for the latter due to its compact footprint and streamlined workflow, allowing Koch to move quickly. “It’s just simple, it’s small,” he says. “I don’t have to have a dedicated front of house booth out front with a tent because I just mix on my iPad.”
While he’s used it for local graduation ceremonies, the CQ-18T has also been pressed into service for EDM gigs, such as bass artist DJ Buku, who only required a simple three channel set up when he recently played Alice’s Champagne Palace, pounding the crowd with heavy 140 BPM bass beats.
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The Avantis doesn’t sit home idle, however; during this year’s Homer HarborFest, a music fest two hours away in the self-proclaimed “Halibut fishing capital of the world,” Koch provided his Avantis to the Anchorage-based sound company hired to supply the P.A., although they had never mixed on the platform before. Having completed the Allen & Heath certification training program years earlier, Koch quickly taught the other company about the desk and reports, “[the engineer] gave in and gave it a shot…and yeah, it worked great.”
