Scandinavia (September 16, 2021)—As a composer and conductor, Hans Ek uses his music to meld disparate genres like classical, jazz, pop, electronica and folk music. Taking them on tour, however, means working with a variety of local ensembles at each stop—a symphony orchestra, multiple vocalists, a 3-5 piece band and, on occasion, a choir—requiring his audio team to come along with a passel of sound gear in tow, including Allen & Heath dLive CTi1500 surfaces.
Overseeing that audio system are engineers Peter Fredriksson (monitors) from PFL Nordic AB and Hans “Surte” Norin (FOH) from Taking Care of Audio AB at live shows throughout Scandinavia. “We tour around and take our gear to the top-class orchestras here in the Nordics, and we use local PA on-site,” explains Fredriksson. “Over the years, we have built up a very neat and specialized dLive setup for projects like this.”
At the heart of the touring rig is a pair of lightweight dLive CTi1500 control surfaces, partnered with a pair of compact 128-channel / 64-bus DM0 MixRacks. The digital split between systems is handled via Allen & Heath’s proprietary gigaACE protocol.
Allen & Heath Unveils dLive CTi1500 Console
With so many channels devoted to vocals and classical instruments, the duo made use of Allen & Heath’s PRIME input and output technology, an ultra-linear circuit design with 32-bit/96kHz converters. “When the PRIME preamp modules were released, we had some in for testing,” Fredriksson says. “We instantly realized that this would be a real game-changer, especially with high channel counts.”
After the evaluation, facilitated by Swedish A&H distributor Benum, PFL Nordic AB and Taking Care of Audio AB invested in 14 PRIME input cards and two PRIME output cards for their four DX32 modular expanders, delivering a total of 112 PRIME input channels and 16 PRIME output channels for the system. In addition to the PRIME outputs, four portable DX012 output expanders are deployed with a mixture of AES and analog outputs feeding IEMs and stage monitors for Ek and the multitude of performers.
“I added the ability, via an IP6 remote controller connected to the MON system, for the conductor [Ek] to mix his own monitors with two separate mixes, one for wedges and one for in-ears” adds Fredriksson. “Using the scene recall filter functions to change between two scenes, he can easily switch between the mixes with one button press, and I can take control of his mix if required.”
