Virginia Beach, VA (January 3, 2020)—Presenting 20 acts in two days is an ambitious schedule for any festival, but the sixth-annual SonRise Music Festival in Virginia Beach made it happen, as it showcased acts like American Idol finalist Colton Dixon and bands like Disciple and Anthem Lights. Making it happen sound-wise—and ensuring everyone got a soundcheck—was S&S Production Services, which fielded Allen & Heath dLive C3500 and SQ-7 mixing systems for the event.
FOH engineer Sonny Smith of S&S Production Services, noted, “Even with a 7 A.M. start time, we had our doubts as to whether or not the acts opening for the headliners would have time for soundcheck. We wanted to give everyone that opportunity, but time was clearly not on our side.”
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With that in mind, Smith manned a SQ-7 at FOH throughout the SonRise Music Festival while monitor engineer Jacob Porter over saw the C3500. Both desks shared a networked, onstage CDM32 MixRack via a gigaACE connection.
Outfitted with a Dante card as well, the dLive C3500 was utilized in conjunction with a secondary Dante rack that was configured pre-show at S&S’s shop for Colton Dixon and some of the other artists who wanted to manage their selection of IEMs. In total, there were 10 wedge monitor mixes onstage and 10 IEMs at SonRise Music Festival.
“This setup streamlined our operations,” Smith explains. “Everyone could just plug right into our system, and they’d be up-and-running in a flash. Even with all the acts we had to accommodate, there was no need for double-miking or doing any repatching. With the speed we gained in terms of turnovers, there was time for every band to do a proper soundcheck. If everyone gets a soundcheck within these festival situations, you know the whole show is going to sound better as a result.”
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