Knoxville, TN — AVL production company BNY Productions recently chose the Waves eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and Waves plugins to mix the 2021 US Presidential Inauguration Parade broadcast audio. Based in Sioux City, Iowa, BNY Productions have been using the Waves eMotion LV1 to mix live streams for political rallies, speeches and a variety of other events.
“For the 2021 Inauguration,” BNY co-owner Bill Kristijanto says, “we were in charge of mixing the parade portion of the event. There was limited live audience this time due to COVID, but there were a lot of press scattered throughout the path of the parade. We mixed the PA but since there was limited audience, we sent the audio directly to the press box, which the press grabbed and then broadcast.”
“The real challenge, however, was the fact we had to keep our equipment hidden due to the presence of cameras everywhere. This is where Waves’ eMotion LV1 was a real life-saver. There is NO other console out there that sounds so exceptionally great, on the one hand, and is so small and flexible, on the other. You can stick it anywhere – no matter how challenging the needs of the production are – and the audio quality is still absolutely uncompromising, equal if not better than the biggest traditional consoles out there.”
“The LV1’s small footprint, together with its modularity and quick setup, were indispensable in this situation. There was no room for a customary setup, so we were forced to place the entire LV1 setup in a very small space under the press risers. There is no way we would have been able to do that with any other console. No other existing high-quality console would have fit. There were countless changing requirements and last-minute changes throughout this production, but we could still easily fetch at any given moment whichever component was required from that minimal space.”
“Quick setup time was crucial to the success of this event,” Kristijanto says. “We had three days, which might sound like an adequate amount of time for this setup, but due to the event’s security protocol we had limited time and limited access to our locations. On top of that, we had to tear the setup down every night and set up again every morning. Only with eMotion LV1 would this be a no-brainer. It is such a flexible system, so easy to put together and take down. At the start of each day, we were all set up and ready to go in no time.”
Kristijanto adds: “We had three LV1’s and microphone setups along the parade route, one at each press riser location. This enabled us to mix independently at each location, giving the client the freedom to decide last minute when and where ‘Voice of God’ (VOG) narration would be used. It also gave us the flexibility to fire the VOG narration or background music, either from one location or at each of the press pool locations. All three LV1 consoles were connected together via SoundGrid on redundant fiber, spanning up to 1,500 feet between each location. Connecting all the consoles and the I/Os together in one network gives us another layer of redundancy in case of device failure.”
In addition to the eMotion LV1 mixing software, BNY’s LV1 systems consisted of DiGiGrid IOX audio interfaces at every street intersection, and redundant Waves SoundGrid servers at every LV1 station. “The redundant servers were essential,” Kristijanto says; “this is a one-time event – capture it now or forget it. With the redundant servers, we could rely 100% on the audio to keep streaming and processing seamlessly, without interruption.”
“A great advantage of the LV1,” he adds, “is the ability to mix with Waves plugins integrated seamlessly within the mixer. During the inauguration, we used the Waves WNS Noise Suppressor plugin to clean up car engine noise and the like. Everybody ended up using the Waves eMo plugins that form the LV1’s channel strip – a little EQ with eMo Q4, a little bit of compression with the eMo D5, and that was it. And then it went out to a WLM Plus Loudness Meter so that everyone was sending the right level to the press.”
“The LV1’s combination of sound quality, user-friendliness and portability are unprecedented,” Kristijanto sums up. “We knew eMotion LV1 was going to be a flexible tool when we first chose it in 2016; but since then its versatility and flexibility have met bigger challenges than we even imagined – especially throughout this pandemic. It really stood the test of time. We can put it anywhere: We can use it in a broadcast studio, in live sound events, in difficult conditions, wherever. It is a brilliant console. And as an owner, the biggest perk is return on investment.”
“Most important,” Kristijanto concludes, “Waves does not play around. They had their dedicated tech support on standby for us throughout the event, and a Waves Product Specialist as well – even though in the end there was no need, because it went flawlessly. They treated us like it’s a big-boy console, like it’s a $70,000 console, even though it cost so much less – and for us, that kind of support is huge.”
Photo caption: BNY LV1 setup under a press riser on 15th and F St.
