Sound Effects by Uday Shah Updates Inventory with Allen & Heath dLive Mixing Solution

Published 5th June, 2022

Allen & Heath dLive S5000 Digital Mixing Console

Pune's sound rental services company - Sound Effects by Uday Shah - has recently invested into adding an Allen & Heath dLive Digital Mixing System to its existing hire stock. The company currently holds a number of digital mixing consoles, but an increase in inquiries and requirements of larger events prompted the necessity for a more expandable solution; with enhanced capabilities of broadcast integration and redundancy being some of the key factors that influenced Uday's decision-making process.

"The Allen & Heath dLive mixing system was something we needed in our rental inventory. In my personal opinion, the S5000 as a pure mixing control surface is really impressive, in terms of its capabilities as well as its look and stature. The new console has 128 inputs, 128 outputs with dante integration. This combined with massive on-board processing means the system is an ideal addition to the hire fleet. Additional Dante components have also been added to inventory allowing a more flexible, resilient and responsive approach to system design. It's a rock-solid mixer with simple drag-n-drop setup and extensive DSP and things our rental customers demand like redundant networking capabilities and hot-swappable power supplies. It for sure ticked all of the boxes with the added benefit of being rider friendly" explains Uday Shah, Founder and Director of Sound Effects.

As part of the rather comprehensive system purchase, Sound Effects bagged the dLive S5000 control surface with DM48 MixRack 48-input digital stagebox and DX168 AudioRack 16 x 8 portable DX I/O expander for dLive systems. And the Sound Effects' team wasted no time in deploying their newly acquired Allen & Heath dLive S5000 digital mixing console, DM48 MixRack and DX168 AudioRack for a grand corporate show that featured a rather elaborate theatrical unveiling along with several musical acts performing on stage.

Speaking about the experience and representing the Sound Effects team's views about the Allen & Heath dLive system in action, Uday shares candidly, "We purchased the system just a few days before the show, and so it gave us the opportunity to test it out in pre-production virtual soundchecks. This was a great way for our team of ace engineers to get familiar with the desk. We used multi-track recordings from a previous gig on a Dante playback. On the day of the show itself, by the time we arrived at the venue, we'd built up a reasonable mix and good confidence with the desk. 32 input channels were used, including playback at FOH. Six monitor mixes were also controlled from FOH, with all the vocal channels being 'digitally split' onto separate inputs for monitors. This allowed us to use the desired level of compression on the main mix vocals without affecting monitors, and thereby helping us avoid issues of feedback etc. Needless to say, the show proceeded in a super smooth manner, and at the end of it all, the entire Sound Effects team - especially our mix engineers - were extremely impressed with the capabilities of the console. We can't wait to work on this magnificent dLive system on the next show!"