The Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, situated in the heart of Inari, Finland, recently underwent a full renovation of its main auditorium, equipping it with the latest, state-of-the-art audio and conference technology, including an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system.

The Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos is also home to the Finnish Sámi Parliament and puts on a range of events, from concerts to theatre productions, and as the largest event venues in Northern Lapland, one of the central projects is the unique Sámi music centre, which actively encourages the development and teaching of traditional Sámi music. As such, the venue needed an advanced, up-to-date system that could keep up with the various requirements for concerts, theatre productions and seminars.

Supplied by Finnish distributor, F-Pro, the installation featured a dLive S7000, fitted with Dante card for virtual soundcheck and multi-track recording and a Waves card, paired with a CDM48 MixRack.

“The previous system was getting old and with fewer updates being released, it was time to move on to something more technologically advanced,” explains Petri Kaltala, Product Manager at F-Musiikki. “As Janne was already aware of and using Allen & Heath products, we felt dLive was the natural progression for the centre and that it would tick all the boxes.”

Lead engineer Janne Lappalainen, adds, “After seeing all the rave reviews for dLive and having used Qu-SB, which sounds far more expensive than it is, we decided to take the plunge and get an S7000. We felt that if A&H can build such an impressive mixer with a tiny footprint, the larger scale dLive would be incredible!”

Alongside the S7000 surface and CDM48 MixRack, the centre operates a dLive Wings ‘Navigator’ setup as the monitor system on stage, featuring dual touchscreens running dLive director and an IP8 remote controller for tactile control over the monitor mix. The compact setup is also used as a mobile solution for touring shows.

“dLive’s preamp emulation and DEEP processing features are far superior to our previous mixing system and, being zero-latency, there is no need for delay compensation, which makes life so much easier. The ease of workflow and configurable interface was also a big selling point for us, as guest techs can now make the console fit their workflow quickly, rather than having a stiff learning-curve,” Lappalainen concludes.