Live Sound

Supported By

Allen & Heath iLive-T Digital Consoles For Brad Paisley Tour’s Water World Stage

“It's great being able to move my channel strips where I want, so I can have the inputs and DCAs I want right at my fingertips." - Bill Chase, house engineer

One of the bright spots in the 2010 summer tour season has been the Brad Paisley “H2O” tour, a fan-friendly affair that offers exceptional entertainment value.

Two Allen & Heath iLive-T digital consoles were chosen to run the two-hour pre-show concert at the “Water World Plaza Stage” just outside the main venue on a portable stage set-up. Up-and-coming country stars Steel Magnolia, Easton Corbin and Josh Thompson perform, with over 5,000 fans typically attending.

To meet the logistical challenge, audio provider Sound Image selected the iLive-T 112 digital mixing consoles for both front of house and monitor duties. “With three bands and five-minute changeovers in between, there’s a lot of action,” says monitor engineer Scott Ferguson. “But Bill and I both have our scenes set for the next band long before the stage is reset. I’ve got to say the iLive-T is extremely user-friendly and makes my job easier than a lot of other digital consoles would.”

FOH engineer Bill Chase agrees.“The iLive takes console setup out of the equation for us,” he states. “The order of the bands changes every day, so we have scenes for each console that only bring up the inputs we need. Up on stage, we keep the entire backline on stage for the full show, and all three bands share a drumkit, bass rig and mic package. I just have to move mics between guitar amps between acts, which happens pretty fast. If it wasn’t for guitar tunings, we could probably do it in under three minutes.”

Both Chase and Ferguson are first-time users of the iLive console. Their first exposure was at Sound Image’s annual employee seminar event last winter, but both got their hands-on baptism during tour rehearsals in early May. “We didn’t even have an iLive in the Nashville shop until just before rehearsals,” Ferguson recalls, “so I read up on it online, downloaded the software and set up a show file on my laptop. As soon as the consoles showed up in our offices, they went straight into rehearsals. It was pretty easy to pick up.”

Bill Chase is especially fond of the iLive’s customizable interface. “It’s great being able to move my channel strips where I want, so I can have the inputs and DCAs I want right at my fingertips. That’s one of the things I like when I first started getting into this console. It’s made a big difference in the way I’m mixing the show.”

Live Sound Top Stories