Fifteen years after investing in its first Soundcraft audio mixing console, Axion Sonorisation Éclairage Audiovisuel (Axion SÉA) in Québec has become the first sound rental company in North America to bring in a Soundcraft Vi6.
Shortly after taking delivery, Martin Chouinard, Axion’s rental manager, sent the new desk to Le Festival d’été de Québec, a 10-day outdoor event held in Québec City. More than 1 million people come for the festival, and up to 10,000 a night attended the concerts on the Molson Dry Stage where, closely watched by Soundcraft’s Simon Roome, François Hallé was mixing on the Vi6.
“Soundcraft has done its homework right,” says the company’s Francois Corbin. “The sound is better than any other digital console in this price bracket and it is so easy to operate that you don’t have to read the manual! At Le Festival d’été, there were artists and engineers from the U.S., Canada and the UK, and everybody wanted to try the Vi6. After the show, the talk was about how good the sound is and how impressively easy they found the ergonomics. We expect to see it on artists’ riders in the very near future.”
Before choosing the Vi6, engineers from Axion visited the ProLight+Sound show in Frankfurt. “As a company, we might be a little late arriving in the digital market, but we feel that the Vi6 will help us to win market share because it is so different, and because it will help us distinguish ourselves from our competition. It has made the whole experience of going digital very easy for us.”
The festival also featured a JBL VerTec rig, JBL Array Series wedges, a Soundcraft SM20, Lexicon 960L effects and BSS EQs.
For more information on Axion SÉA, visit www.axion-inc.ca. For more information on Soundcraft, visit www.soundcraft.com.
