Using no less than four DiGiCo consoles, George Michael performed the very first gigs at the new Wembley Stadium on June 9th and 10th, 2007, in the process ushering in a brand new (and long awaited) era for live music in the UK capital's most infamous and controversial venue.
As with the arena tour, two DiGiCo D5 Lives were used for front of house sound and Michael's monitors, with a D5T on band monitors. But for the first Wembley show a third D5 was added to perform perhaps the most high profile task of all - mixing the sound for a live television broadcast.
Ruadhri Cushan and Niall Flynn were the engineers given the onerous task, but the D5 ensured that their lives were as straightforward as possible - despite neither of the team having used a DiGiCo console before.
"It's a straightforward, easy to use desk and its layout is very logical," says Ruadhri. "For example, having the visual name displays next to each fader bank makes it quick to get to the fader you want, which in turn brings the relevant channel to the top layer of the display. So tweaking the desk EQ or compression is always immediate. Arranging aux sends, sub groups, etc, was also very quick and easy, aided by the intuitive visuals. We also found that the large LCD type display, which shows most of the channel information, is well laid out and easy to look at.
"We had some reconfiguring to do for Wembley, we had added some extra audience mics which needed to be sent to the broadcast truck separately from our music mix, but there was nothing the D5 couldn't handle. The show passed very smoothly. Saving and updating snapshots is seamless and moving from one title's snapshot to the next is also very swift. I also liked the easily accessible USB port on the front meter bridge. It's a constant visual reminder to save and back-up."
DiGiCo...www.DiGiconsoles.com
