The Teatro Astral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, relies upon an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system for the launch of the iconic Broadway musical, Kinky Boots, which saw its opening night in January.
The large-capacity venue accommodates up to 1,200 people and has become a home to various productions, events, conferences, congresses, seminars and exhibitions. With the theatre not having its own in-house system, the venue turns to audio rental company BR Sound S.R.L to help host its events, and with the latest Kinky Boots production being scheduled for multiple times a week over the next two years and featuring a large crew of on-stage actors and musicians, the engineers needed a large format desk that significantly expanded the theatre’s capabilities in terms of channel counts, processing power, speed and flexibility.
Lead engineer, Santiago Rivero (BR Sound), explains, “We needed a flexible, compact and powerful mixer, with an affordable price. We immediately thought of A&H mixers, because we are former GLD users and have always loved the sound.”
Facilitated by Allen & Heath’s Argentinian distributor, ARS Technologies, the full setup features a dLive C3500 surface, which uses around 80 input channels and more than 100 scene changes during the show, paired with a CDM48 MixRack, which is fitted with a Dante card for multitrack recording and playback.
Personal monitoring for each musician is handled via seven ME-1 systems connected to the MixRack and deployed in the orchestra pit alongside a DX168 expander, which provides additional analogue I/O.
Rivero concludes, “dLive is just the best fit for the show. From the amazing graphic interface, to the large number of customisable options & knobs, dLive can be used in a number of ways and it allows operators with different workflows to get to grips with it incredibly easily. Also, as we need to use various 3rd party software during the show, thanks to the optional networking cards, dLive can easily integrate and work with everything we could need!”
