PRO6 Stars at Folk Festival
One of Australia’s leading production companies ‘Powa Productions’ have recently added to their extensive Midas inventory a new PRO6. This joins an existing stock that includes Heritage 3000, Heritage 2000, XL250, Verona and Siena. The PRO6 made its debut at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in western Victoria which is the largest event of its kind in Australia. Running over four days and attracted crowds in excess of 25,000 to a town that only has a third of that population normally.
The PRO6 was at Front of House on Stage One and was a big hit over the weekend with many visiting engineers walking away very impressed after their first experience with the console. To ensure that the consoles capability was shown to its fullest, Powa enlisted the aid of Australian Midas product manager Phill Webb to attend the festival as console tech for the visiting engineers. In addition Phill was on hand to then mix those acts who did not have their own engineers. Powa Productions C.E.O. Geoff Knight was quite verbal in expressing his gratitude to local Midas distributer Bosch Communications Systems for their support.
Powa purchased a PRO6 system that incorporates aspects of its big brother the XL8 with DL431 input split boxes (2 x providing 48 split inputs) as well as DL451 I/O box to provide system outputs as well as additional inputs. Powa also supplemented their PRO6 with the addition of the Klark Teknik DN9331 graphic equaliser fader remote. Hanging off the PRO6 were eight matrix sends to incorporate delays and fills as well as the main front of house feeds. A number of leading Australian acts including Ross Wilson (Daddy Cool), My Friend the Chocolate Cake, The Audreys, John Williamson as well as numerous international artists played this venue which throughout the weekend often exceeded its 3500 seat capacity.
Stage One also proved to be a showcase for Midas and Klark Teknik with an XL250 performing monitor duties with a rack of DN360s providing output EQ. The XL250 was able to take its split direct from the DL431s thus eliminating outboard splits. Interestingly this is one stage that also incorporates a broadcast split with The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) taking a full split for live broadcast.
The PRO6 performed faultlessly over the four days with Geoff Knight again commenting that the board is the perfect festival console as it has the ability to isolate the right hand side of the surface in to an area ‘B’. “So often with festivals the FOH tech and the band engineer get in each others way as they try to make the gig work, with the PRO6 the band engineer was able to work unimpeded in area ‘A’ while the console tech was at the other end of the surface setting up the facilities in area ‘B’ that the engineer required without getting in his way. This is one of many features that will make it a very popular system. And of course it sounds like a Midas!” enthused Geoff.
Photo: Powa Productions C.E.O Geoff Knight with his new PRO6
Photo: John Williamson engineer Matt Andretta mixing on the PRO6
Photo: Midas XL250 side of stage at Port Fairy folk festival