Solotech Relies on Grass Valley Gear for Rush R40 Tour

With more than 40 million albums sold in the past 40 years and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2013, Rush has established itself as one of the world’s most recognized rock bands. The R40 Tour, staged throughout the summer of 2015, marked the band’s 40th anniversary and gave fans a chance to see the group live. Solotech, a Canadian event producer dedicated to leveraging state-of-the-art equipment to create memorable performances, used a number of solutions from Grass Valley, a Belden Brand, to produce the Rush R40 Tour.

For this event, Solotech selected the Karrera K-Frame S-series switcher and K2 Solo 3G HD/SD server for the ease of use, versatility and ability to double the number of M/Es compared to the competition.

“We’ve used a lot of different solutions from different manufacturers, but have found that the Grass Valley products give us a level of performance and versatility that we can’t get from other suppliers,” explained Richard Lachance, first vice president, touring, Solotech. “Live event production is very demanding, so having equipment that we can depend on and that we know will grow with us is extremely important. That’s what we get from Grass Valley.”

The Karrera K-Frame S-series switcher combines ultimate mid-range switcher performance along with proven workflows and simplified control of complex productions, with multiformat support including 1080p and 4K. Switching of 4K is offered without the need for any hardware or software upgrades, and the switchers are now available with IP I/O for SMPTE 2022-6 connectivity.

Broadcast-capable and optimized for both production and broadcast workflows, K2 Solo is ideal for small production studios and mobile production trucks. This high-quality HD/SD media server comes with 25 hours of HD storage and is also compatible with all applications that run on the K2 Summit 3G production client.

“From studio work to live production and events, our equipment plays a key role in so many projects,” says Stephen Stubelt, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Grass Valley. “This tour was important for many reasons, so the pressure was on for Solotech to deliver the best possible results. Using the right Grass Valley solutions, the group was able to exceed the client’s expectations.”