LAGOS, Nigeria – PF Syztems, the soundco that originally installed a 40-channel Allen & Heath ML3000 VCA console at FOH with a 40-channel GL4000 at monitor position when Daystar Christian Centre in Ikosi was first opened three years ago, returned to upgrade the system with an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system.
The 7,000-capacity church opted to upgrade the system to deal with the increased complexity with multiple stage requirements of four consecutive services, which were required to meet the needs of its growing congregation.
PF Syztems already had an iLive system, comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and iLive-T112 Control Surface, in its rental stock, and, based on its performance and value, they recommended that the church should upgrade to an all-digital A&H system.
"I recommend iLive desks to every FOH and monitor engineer," said PF Syztems' engineer/consultant, Olushola Aremu. "The iDR-48/iLive-T112 system is a great digital system to work with; it's user-friendly, portable and is a particularly good mixer for monitor mixing.
"The fact that you can control the entire mix from a Notebook via a wireless network makes it so flexible," Aremu added. "Setting it up is very fast and easy as Allen & Heath has done a good job in removing the many complications involved in setting up digital desks.
"Also, using the iLive plug-in cards for audio networking such as MADI, EtherSound and ACE, offers a good alternative to the transformer splitter, when multiple mix racks are employed."
The system eventually installed at Daystar consists of an iLive-T80 surface to manage monitors, an iLive-T112 at FOH, with iDR-48 and iDR-32 MixRacks digitally split via ACE on stage to provide the required 60 channels, whilst retaining trim controls at both surfaces.
The engineers and stage techs have responded positively to the amount of control the system provides, especially the full dynamic and EQ processing on each channel, plus eight channels of onboard FX.
"It's been an awesome experience so far," said Daystar's monitor engineer, Funminiyi Adedeji. "It's great to know that you can access your strips and assign them to do whatever you want to do at anytime, even when mixing away from the surface.
"Now, working from my Notebook with iLive Editor, I can actually listen to the live mix from individual monitors during a performance," Adedeji added. "The system headroom is more than sufficient and the mixer sounds amazing. This purchase is a huge success story."
For more information, please visit www.ilive-digital.com.
