Now in its fifth year, the annual Port Harcourt Carnival, better known as CarniRiv, has evolved from its modest beginnings as an informal regional gathering to become a major festival event – a true carnival in many respects.
This year, with Port Harcourt celebrating its centennial, the program was even bigger. Held at the 25,000-seat Elekahia Liberation Stadium, the six-day lineup featured more than 40 regional and international artists including Shaggy, Morgan Heritage, 2face, Timaya, Duncan Mighty, and many more.
One of the country’s top events providers, Paragonis Multimedia Productions was brought in to provide sound and lighting for the event. As Paragonis founder and President Kunle Akintayo explains, CariRiv was an ideal application for their collection of PreSonus StudioLive consoles.
“The StudioLive never ceases to surprise me, and CarniRiv was another example,” says Akintayo. “We had originally purchased it as an alternative to lugging around our larger live consoles and all the outboard processors, and the plan was to use it for a while and move on to something more elaborate. But we have been so pleasantly surprised with all the StudioLive’s cool features, and since then we’ve purchased more than ten of them for our company and for installations in nightclubs and other venues.”
Akintayo points to the console’s ease of use as a tremendous asset. “So many times, I have been giving a quick crash course to an engineer for some foreign band, and in less than ten minutes I hear ‘I’ve got it.’ It’s just such an easy and intuitive workflow.”
With a client base that includes Coca Cola, Virgin Atlantic, MTN Nigeria, Guinness, Economist of London, and various state and national government agencies, Paragonis prides itself on a reputation for stellar production and top-notch, state-of-the-art equipment. “The quality of the StudioLive is simply exquisite,” says Akintayo. “The sound of the console is simply amazing, and the feature set truly rivals many of the much larger and more expensive desks. I just love everything about the PreSonus.”
