Allen & Heath has announced the sale of the 1,000th and 1001st iLive-T mixing system to Sound Image, one of the top touring sound companies in the US. To mark the occasion, Allen & Heath’s US distributor, American Music & Sound (AM&S), presented a commemorative award to Sound Image during a press conference at the recent NAMM Show.
During his acceptance speech, Sound Image President, Dave Shadoan, comments, “The products we purchase have to make good business sense, and basically, make our clients happy. To get this much flexibility and DSP capability in one system, at this price point, made purchasing these two iLive systems a no brainer for Sound Image.”
According to Rick Stanley, Director of Corporate & Regional Events for Sound Image, the key to the sale was bringing in an iLive system – comprising an iDR-48 MixRack with iLive-T112 Control Surface – for demonstration.
“Our goal was to check it out and see what it does. Dave Lewty from Allen & Heath did an hour long presentation and left the demo unit with us. By the next day, I had nine engineers who were ready to take it out,” comments Stanley. “It’s a really intuitive layout that can be set up to accommodate monitors just as easily as FOH, or both. It’s perfect for a sound company.”
Sound Image opted for the 48 in, 24 out configuration iDR-48 MixRack, with an iLive-T112 Control Surface offering another 16 in, 12 out. What attracted Rick Stanley was the system’s inherent value, whereby the fixed I/O iLive-T models have the same 64×32 DSP mix engine, 8 stereo FX processors, preamps and audio architecture as the premium flagship iLive line.
“It’s a value issue. For a system at this price point and size, it meets all the technical requirements,” notes Stanley. “I love the Allen & Heath approach to DSP, with all that processing power available all the time, which means you don’t have to compromise and you don’t need any outboard gear. That’s a killer combination in a lot of touring and festival situations, especially with support acts who want their own desk but need to store it in the cargo bay of a bus.”
Rick Stanley foresees a full season of touring and local duties for Sound Image’s two new iLive systems.
“In addition to touring, we do a lot of local shows and festivals, and I expect these systems to be constantly employed for both,” he says. “Hands down, the iDR-48/iLive-T112 gives us a lot more flexibility than any other console at this price point. Once I had seen the demo, I knew it would be really advantageous to have iLive in our arsenal, and that’s why we bought two of them.”
