With Limited Setup Time, Aviom Personal Mixers Help Group Focus on Making Festive Music for Community
BOUND BROOK, NJ, DECEMBER 8, 2011 — For the third annual Wintersong Band concert, Aviom Personal Mixers will take the stage at the historic Brook Theatre, helping to keep stage volume at bay for the eight-piece band and its singers as they kick off the holiday season.
Inspired by this festive time of year, the Wintersong Band hosts an annual concert that features a compilation of holiday classics and original compositions, with the intention of offering a great night of music while giving back to the community. The two-night concert features an eight-piece band, including a bass player, keyboard player, drummer, two electric guitar players, an acoustic guitar player, a percussionist and a fiddle player—with some musicians playing multiple instruments, such as the banjo or mandolin. Depending on the song, there is anywhere from one single vocalist to several with a group of backup singers, requiring equipment that can match the dynamic nature of the show and its various band configurations.
“It was our goal to create a concert that’s fresh and really puts us and the people who come to the show in the spirit of Christmas,” says Michael Hoddy, sound designer and co-creator of the Wintersong Band. While the first two years’ concerts took place in Hoddy’s local church, this year’s show will be the group’s biggest yet, held at the historic Brook Theatre. “It’s an old 1920-something theatre—a really great environment to celebrate this wonderful holiday. Since the collection of songs ranges from rock to folk to Latin to a capella, the stage layout changes considerably throughout the show.”
Hoddy, who uses Aviom Personal Mixers regularly when consulting as a sound designer, has relied on Aviom Personal Mixers for all Wintersong Band productions to date. “I’ve been using Aviom products since about 2004,” says Hoddy. “Aviom Personal Mixers have always been easy to implement and are reliable. What makes them specifically beneficial during Wintersong is the fact that we have really limited rehearsal time. It’s hard enough to get our entire group together to run through the show of about 20 tunes, so what we don’t have time to do is mess around with monitors.”
The Aviom system was designed for convenient use and easy setup. This year’s Wintersong system will include a Yamaha digital console equipped with an Aviom16/o-Y1 A-Net Card. One Cat-5 cable will run from the Y1 card in the console to two A-16D Pro A-Net Distributors on stage—one stage left and the other stage right. From there, the A-16D Pros provide 16 channels of audio to both A-16R Personal Mixers and A-16II Personal Mixers used by musicians with either in-ear monitors or floor wedges, depending on their position. “It’s a very flexible, adaptable solution and we love that the Cat-5 keeps the system simple without the need for special wires or proprietary cables,” says Hoddy. “Besides the obvious benefits of being able to get it set up very quickly, it is ridiculously reliable and allows us to simply make music. In all of my years of using Aviom, you plug it in and it works.”
Hoddy, his band and the show engineers appreciate the flexibility of the mixers—especially as they load into the venue only one day prior to the show, significantly limiting on-site rehearsals. “It’s simple; you can just put the system together as you need to, so if you need to add another mixer once you’re on site, you can easily do so,” says Hoddy. “We have to get in and get going very quickly, so with the Aviom system, we don’t really have to think a lot about our setup—everything’s right there and we don’t have microphone feedback. Considering our setup is in an unfamiliar space, Aviom Personal Mixers provide us with something that is familiar and predictable.”
For more information about the Wintersong Band, visit http://www.wintersongband.com.
Aviom pioneered personal mixing with its Pro16® Monitor Mixing System and continues to break new ground with the revolutionary Pro64® Series of audio networking products. With tens of thousands of products in the field today, Aviom has set the standard for high performance, scalable digital solutions. All Aviom systems harness the power of A-Net®, Aviom’s innovative digital audio technology that simplifies system design while enhancing flexibility and fidelity. All Aviom products are designed, tested, and manufactured in the USA. For more information, visit www.Aviom.com.
