Italian rental company AGORA has purchased an SSL Live console to support the local and international music, sports and corporate events that it serves.
In the nearly 25 years that it has been in business, AGORA has become the standard for the tours of top Italian artists, such as Andrea Bocelli, Laura Pausini, Ligabue and Tiziano Ferro, as well as high-profile international events, such as Carlos Santana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Elton John, the Live 8 concert and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2006 and 2014 Winter Games in Turin and Sochi.
AGORA’s Live console has already hit the road with one major client, Italian blues singer Mario Biondi, whose front of house engineer, Piefrancesco “Hugo” Tempesta, has been using it on tour for almost two months and has been extremely happy with the results.
“Before I decided to use the SSL Live on tour, I did a simple but efficient test,” says Tempesta. “I used one channel and carefully listened to the performance of the mic pre, summing and overall sound quality, which reminded me of the high level analogue sound that I was used to.
“I had no doubt in my mind that this was the console for me, and I feel very confident in my choice.”
It wasn’t just the sound quality that drew Tempesta to the SSL Live, but also the user-friendly interface, which he says is well-designed and intuitive.
Another key feature for him is SSL’s Blacklight II high bandwidth multiplexed MADI, which transports several MADI ports on a single fibre connection.
“AGORA usually invests with major players in the industry and of course SSL is one of them, even if it has just joined the live touring market,” Wolfgango and Vittorio De Amicis, brothers and co-owners of AGORA add. “We expect that SSL’s reputation will follow the company into the live space and make Live a leading contender in the market.”
