Scene Change Chooses HARMAN’s Soundcraft® Si1 Console

SYDNEY, Australia — Leading national audiovisual group Scene Change has selected HARMAN’s Soundcraft® Si1 console as its high-end mixer of choice. Scene Change has grown spectacularly since its formation in 2006, appearing this year as #48 on the BRW Fast Starters list, which ranks Australia’s fastest-growing startup companies. A key to Scene Change’s growth has been keeping its crew motivated by purchasing the best equipment available.

“When you want to attract the best crew in a tight labor market, you need to give them the best tools to work with, so they feel good about the quality of show they’re delivering,” says Scene Change’s Sydney Director Vicken Hekimian. “The quality of the equipment motivates the crew to work harder to make our clients happy, which is really important when you’re the underdog.”

As part of this strategy, Scene Change takes a democratic approach to major capital expenditure. All members of the senior crew are given a chance to test drive prospective new purchases. The search for new mixers was a long one. Many digital desks were judged to be not flexible enough to handle the last-minute nature of large corporate events. The Soundcraft Si1 emerged the victor.

The key selling point was the quality of the onboard control gear. External effects racks take up time and space that is often not available for tight-turnaround corporate shows, so a digital desk was the logical choice.

“There’s no questioning the quality of the onboard gear on the Si1,” says Hekimian. “BSS processing, dbx equalisation, and Lexicon effects are all proven products that we know and trust. It passed all the tests we could throw at it.”

Apart from removing the need for the external rack, the Si1’s compact footprint also helps in the corporate environment, as control areas are continually squeezed as clients and venues put more tables and guests in the room.

The Si1’s programmability has proved useful for touring shows too, with the ability to work on a setup externally on a laptop, then upload it to the desk via USB.

“Unlike some of the other desks we looked at, the Si1 integrates really well with the analog world,” Hekimian adds. “The whole input and output structure is really well thought out. It also looks really cool. The look and feel of your equipment is really important when you work with event producers who know their stuff. They’re sitting right next to the desk for the whole show, so you need gear that reassures them they’re working with professionals.”

Photo Caption: Scene Change’s Chris Challinor with the Soundcraft Si1

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.8 billion for the twelve months ending June 30, 2011.

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HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si2 Digital Console Brings an Expanded Sonic Palette to Cruise Ship Paul Gauguin

POTTERS BAR, United Kingdom — Paul Gauguin Cruises operates the cruise ship m/s Paul Gauguin, which can accommodate 320 people for a week long luxury cruise experience through Tahiti, French Polynesia and the South Pacific. Since its maiden voyage in 1998, the Paul Gauguin has been the longest continually operating year-round cruise ship in the South Pacific. The audio system in the ship’s Grand Salon was recently upgraded with HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si2 Digital Live Sound Console, which is designed for installations where space is at a premium yet where a full-featured console is required.

“The Grand Salon is one of the focal points of the Paul Gauguin,” notes Jean Jacques Canot of French Polynesia systems integrator Total Vidéo “It’s the ship’s entertainment venue, where the crew performs cabaret shows in addition to appearances by guest artists and musicians. On occasion, bands also play when they have dance events.”

“Before installing the Soundcraft Si2, the Grand Salon was outfitted with an analog console and a lot of external effects processors, compressors and equalizers,” Canot continued. “Everything had to be done manually. Nothing was automated. We needed to bring the system up to modern day standards, and the sound of the Salon’s audio system had to be improved.” In addition to the Soundcraft Si2 console, the Grand Salon system was upgraded with four JBL AC18/95 loudspeakers, installed in the stage ceiling as monitors.

“The Si2 provided big improvements in many ways. The stage manager and performers say their jobs are a lot easier now, thanks to the Si2’s ability to store scenes and instantly recall them,” says Canot. The Si2’s Virtual Si offline editor program lets users set up and manage complete shows offline, for later download to the console. “Also, we no longer need to deal with outboard effects racks, and their space, complexity and expense.”

“Everyone is also impressed with the sound of the system now, especially the incredible quality of the Si2’s built-in digital effects, and the ability to tailor the sound with the board’s EQ and compression. The crew and performers are really satisfied with the improvement in the sound. With its 64 mic inputs, 24 faders and logical layout of controls and display screens the Si2 can easily accommodate the show’s present and future requirements, and is a pleasure to use.”

For more information about Total Vidéo, please visit www.tvdis.pf

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,800 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.5 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.

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HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Series Gains More Inputs and Options

ORLANDO, Florida — Launched just two years ago and already the winner of 10 industry awards, HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Series has received an upgrade, which provides more inputs on the Si1 and Si2 versions plus additional functionality and options across the range.

With the range now designated the ‘Si+’ Series, the Si1+ has 16 additional mic inputs fitted as standard bringing the number of onboard mic inputs to 48 and processing capacity of 72 inputs to mix; the extra 16 mic input module may be replaced by an 8-in/8-out module if required. The number of option card slots increases to four, and there is now a space for an optional second (redundant) PSU.

The Si2+ gains the 16 mic input module as standard (also swappable with the 8-in/8-out module), which extends the onboard mic input count to 64 with an input-to-mix capacity of 80.

All three models, including the Si3+, gain a word clock output connector, and all models can use the range of Si optional interface cards including MADI (optical or Cat5), AES/EBU, CobraNet® and Aviom A-Net™.

For further details visit www.soundcraft.com

Caption: The management team for the Soundcraft Si and Si Compact Series, now having won 11 industry awards in the past two years (left to right): Richard Ayres, Product Manager; Matt Rowe, Hardware Engineering Manager; Chris Gomm, R&D Senior Manager.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,800 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.5 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.

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