The Skive Theatre (in Skive, Denmark), a focus of cultural life in the municipality for more than 125 years, has been broadening its programming, leading to the decision to invest in an Allen & Heath dLive mix system to better keep pace with an ever-changing events schedule.
Key criteria for theatre technical manager, Anders Holm, included compactness, ease of setup and the flexibility to handle anything from a handful of microphones to a full live band. Another important factor was the ability to run talks and other simple events from a remote controller without needing to wheel in a full console.
Anders, who is also the owner of pro audio rental and installation company AHX, opted for the dLive system that’s built around a DM32 MixRack and a compact 19-inch C1500 surface that’s mounted in a flipcase for portability and speed of setup. An IP8 remote controller supplements the surface, bringing the maximum number of available fader strips to 120. The IP8 also fulfills the requirement for straightforward hands-on mixing of smaller events.
The DM32 is fitted with an AES I/O card, plus a Dante card for easy integration with the venue’s Dante network. A portable DX168 I/O expander completes the setup, providing additional onstage connectivity.
“With the new dLive system, everyday life has become easier,” Anders states. “Setup and breakdown have gone from 15 minutes down to two. Plus there are a lot of new features that we didn’t have in our old system, like the 16 FX engines and lots of multiband compression, as well as a very open bus structure. It’s really fun to work with a desk where almost every conceivable configuration is possible. Compared to our old system, the sound quality has also been enhanced. The whole system sounds much more open and expansive. It’s almost as if the frequency range has doubled.”
