The
Greatest Show On Earth® Goes Digital With DiGiCo For All
Its Audio Needs In Multiple U.S. Touring Units
Audio
Product Stories Published: 10 January
2009
From its humble beginnings in 1871, The Ringling Bros. and Barnum
& Bailey® Circus has evolved into more than merely a
three-ring circus. The contemporary circus of 2008 (under the
direction of Feld Entertainment since 1967) has retained many
of the traditional elements that have made it a family favorite
for over 138 years—unusual animal performances, captivating
clown escapades and daring high-wire acts—while adding
a modern twist replete with contemporary music and progressive
choreography.
Three independent touring units, Red, Blue and
Gold, host millions of visitors and travels to more than 90
cities in North America each year. Each of the shows tour a
two-year schedule that is done in the fashion of first-year
markets followed by second-year markets, followed by a two-year
wrap at the Winter Quarters in Florida where the show is redesigned
and rehearsed for its future debut. Thus, every market gets
a brand new show each year.
With complex audio requirement notwithstanding, its no wonder
Head of Audio at Feld Entertainment, Charles Garza, chose to
outfit each of the touring units with DiGiCo D5 live sound consoles.
Each unit’s audio footprint is identical, with two DiGiCo
D5s’ handling both FOH and monitor duties. Reliability,
small footprint and transparent sound were the main factors
in his decision.
“The flexibility of the system allows for future change
and growth of the productions. The intuitive interface allows
virtually any engineer to step up and feel at home and, ultimately,
the great sound that it delivers made it a natural for us,”
Garza explains. “The systems have performed brilliantly
and the support from DiGiCo is always as if you are the most
important customer the company could possibly have. I couldn’t
ask for better than that!”
Monitor and FOH consoles share 56 analog inputs to run 32 monitor
mixes for both the wireless in-ears and wired in-ear and wedge
monitor mixes with 16 analog outputs at the stage rack (optically
enabled). The monitor consoles have an additional 8 analog inputs,
32 analog outputs and 4 digital I/Os at its local rack (MADI
connection), and the FOH console has an additional 40 analog
inputs, 40 analog outputs and 8 digital I/Os at its local rack
(optically enabled).
“I am often asked why we would have an optically enabled
rack at FOH,” Garza adds. “What happens is that
in addition to the show itself, we have to be able to accommodate
a myriad of styles of PR or pre and post show events that may
take place. This necessitates the extra inputs and outputs located
at FOH, plus it allows us to include those inputs when needed
to the usual monitor mixes.”
Currently traversing the globe are the "The Red Unit"
and “The Blue Unit”. Daniel Pelaez is the Head of
the Sound Department for the Red Unit, along with Josh "Cheese"
Hashbarger (FOH engineer and lead technician), Jeremy "J-Lo"
Robertson (Lead Monitor Engineer and RF Tech), and Donnie Gothard
(Monitor Assistant). The Blue Unit is spearheaded by Eli Howell
along with Jeffrey A. Linn (FOH Engineer #2), Mark “Buddha”
Nichols (Monitors), and Michael Moore (Monitor Assistant).
Each of the guys was able to cite a different set of features
and functions that topped their list of favorites. “This
is gonna sound silly,” Pelaez confesses, “but I'm
in love with the touch recognition on the faders. There's been
a time or two when a fader has gotten bumped by a radio or something
and it would have been quite a noticeable mistake had it not
been for the touch sensitive fader recognizing it as not being
an intended movement and therefore not registering the movement.
I also love the ability to move individual channels on the fly
without interrupting the audio.”
Harshberger raves about the input channel overview screens.
“Being able to see 8 inputs at a glance is great. Anything
that I want to manipulate is only one touch away—EQ's,
comps and gates, input/output routing… Also, with the
multiple onboard FX and EQ options I have been able to tailor
the sounds exactly how I want, no matter what the room sounds
like. Being able to slap a graphic EQ onto any channel at anytime
is invaluable.”
The biggest plus for Linn is the sheer number of options and
flexibility with all of the channels, whether it be routing,
patching, or insert sends—they’re all easily accomplished
within quick reach of a stage/local I/O rack as opposed to digging
in the back of a large scale analog console. And the ability
to handle total recall is a lifesaver in case of a major disaster.
“The rack setup and design by using the optically enabled
cables makes pairing up a FOH and monitor board amazingly simple,”
Linn adds. “All of the consoles can see and/or control
channels from the racks, which eliminate splitting signals and
eliminating potential sound degradation. The overall layout
of the board is much like an analog console which I enjoy as
it made learning how to use the board very quick and easy. Having
on board EQ, compression, gate and FX for individual channels
keeps things easily within reach and reduces the amount of necessary
outboard gear. And probably a largely underrated feature I'd
said I enjoy is the LED strip at the top...it helps to see what
you're doing especially when in a pitch-black back stage!”
As far as the intricacies involved with navigating the monitoring
specifications of performers and band alike, the D5’s
ease of routing was a boon for Mark “Buddha” Nichols.
“We have it set up so all you have to do is hit a button
and you're in someone's mix,” explains Buddha. “Sometimes
we get band guys calling in at the same time, or one right after
the other requesting mix changes. Just being able to hit a button
and be in someone's mix makes handling this a lot easier. Making
a digital "Y" has also come in handy. The ease of
routing and using it to be able to locate something quickly
in the stage rack is also quite convenient. Also, when something
goes down on the bandstand, being able to quickly pull up the
location in the stage rack is great.”
“I think moving the I/O out from behind the board is one
of my favorite features,” adds monitor A2 Michael Moore,
“because I can have it right there next to me when I have
to make a last minute change. That saves me having to run behind
the board and turning my back on the show. It also helps with
its maintenance. Also, moving away from analog allows me to
do so much more. I no longer need racks and racks of out board
gear just to run monitors, let alone FOH. With other digital
boards I don’t get the ease of controls. The faders are
so smooth on the D5 and the motors never get in the way. The
touch screens for every fader section allows me to have more
then one view and see what is going on not only in my master
section but, the fader bank I have selected. The less work I
have to do setting it up, the more time I have to mix and with
the D5 I can be up and ready in minutes. At RBBB, it allows
me to be able to have several mixes going on at a touch of a
LCD fader, which gives me all the info I need rather then just
a name or db level. When I need to raise the drums in the sax
player's in-ears mix, I build a gang. The D5 make it so simple,
I just push a button and mix without missing a thing.”
