Prêmio Multishow Relies on DiGiCo Consoles

Held annually since 1998, Prêmio Multishow (the Multishow Brazilian Music Awards) is hosted by cable TV channel Multishow. Broadcast live across the country, the 2015 event featured six DiGiCo mixing consoles.

Multishow is part of GloboSat, the cable television arm of Globo TV, Brazil’s biggest television channel. Presented for the fourth year by singer Ivete Sangalo and actor Paulo Gustavo, Prêmio Multishow 2015 was enjoyed by a huge television audience. The live and broadcast audio was taken care of by São Paulo-based Epah! Estúdios, in collaboration with Globosat’s engineering department.

The brief for Epah! Estúdios was complex and included providing the PA and monitors for the ceremony, which took place over three stages; broadcast mix in stereo and 5.1; 128 channel multitrack recording; ‘master room’ and all internal communications (directors to artists, bands, presenters, etc).

Each of the outer stages hosted a full band, alternately backing more than 30 major Brazilian acts who performed on the centre stage, which was also the location of the awards presentations.

For the house sound Epah! deployed a DiGiCo SD10 to mix the musical acts and backing bands. An SD8 acted as master console, receiving the mix from the SD10 plus the presenter and audio from video feeds, routing the master mix to the house PA system.

In monitor world an SD7 handled 133 channels, mixing 43 stereo and three mono mixes, with an SD9 for line checks, while another SD10 was located at the ‘master room’, acting as a backup and receiving/sending mixes from all consoles.

Four DiGiCo SD-Racks summed 224 inputs and 224 outputs, with all consoles connected on an Optocore Loop, except for the SD8 which was connected via MADI to the SD10 at FOH.

For the broadcast mix, Epah! used its UMA3 mobile broadcast facility. This is based on a DiGiCo SD7B console, with a DiGiGrid MGB for recording on two PCs running Reaper, two Waves Server One Servers, SD7 Waves Bundle plugins pack and a DiGiCo SD-Nano Rack for outputs to the mobile video facility.

“I’ve been using DiGiCo consoles since 2009 and have also worked for Audio Systems, DiGiCo’s Brazilian dealer since 2012,” says Renato Carneiro, who mixed monitors on the SD7 and designed the show’s audio system with Eduardo ‘Du’ Pinter and Markinho Maluf.

“DiGiCo consoles sound incredible and have very low latency, which is really important for mixing monitors. The fact that they have a completely open signal architecture allows us to do almost anything with the signal flow, while the totally customisable surface means the console adapts to your way of working, not the other way round.”

At Prêmio Multishow 2015, Renato was especially happy to have a number of the SD7’s features at his fingertips, including the Aux Sends panel for copying aux sends, the console’s powerful Snapshots section and the customisable fader banks, which meant he could organise the inputs and outputs to allow the easiest way of working with a very complex production.

“As I was mixing lots of channels to a lot of Auxes, using the Control Group Fader for the aux sends was a necessity. Sound Check mode was also really useful, as we had a lot of stage changes and re-patching – it meant we could easily check the next act during the show,” he says.

“The overview screen also made it possible to have a constant detailed picture of almost everything that was happening at any time. To be honest, I don’t know how I could have done it on any other console.”

DiGiCo SD7s Are Maná From Heaven
Promoting their latest album Cama Incendiada, multi-Grammy winning Mexican band Maná is currently on a two year world tour, taking in the US, Europe and South America. Wanting ’the best’, the tour’s engineers specified a pair of DiGiCo SD7 consoles.

Rental company Procolor is based in the band’s home city of Guadalajara and has been working with them for 25 years.

Front of House engineer Fernando Perez and monitor engineer Simon Lifschitz both chose DiGiCo SD7s for the tour because, as the band’s manager Jorge Reyes, says “everybody told us it was the best we could get. It was as simple as that!”

Alongside the consoles, the tour features two SD-Racks – one for each SD7 – and one SD-Nano Rack, all on an optical loop. The Nano Rack is shared between the two consoles and used for a small B stage located behind the FOH mix position. To tie in with the band’s latest album title – Cama Incendiada – the B stage is shaped like a bed.

“We love the dynamics of the entire system,” says Fernando. “There is loads of headroom available and I love the frequency response of the system, especially in the lower frequencies. The ability to run Waves plugins is also a nice feature.

“During an outdoor show in Tenerife, we were able to listen to the sound quality without any of the reflections from an indoor venue and we were amazed at the sound of the consoles. The sound on stage was also very good and the band is very happy.”

As well as the sound quality of the SD7s, both Fernando and Simon are pleased that they have the ability to run video signals through the optical network for easier stage feedback, while the whole crew have been impressed withDiGiCo’s support.

“We are very happy with the support side,” says Jorge. “DiGiCo’s Fernando Delgado assisted us during rehearsals in Mexico and also during the show in La Coruña, Spain. We feel we are in the best hands.”