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ALAN WALKER: AVIATION An Allen & Heath dLive Wings system flies around the world with the Norwegian multi-platinum DJ.
Norwegian DJ and record producer, Alan Walker set out on his latest Aviation tour across China, India and Norway, with an Allen & Heath dLive Wings system handling both FOH and monitor duties. One of Norway’s biggest EDM music exports, Walker performs with various third-party software, as well as a live band and requires a complex set up. The engineers needed a small and lightweight system to fly around the world, which could also handle a high I/O count via several protocols, such as Waves SoundGrid, Dante and MADI in order to interface with thirdparty systems. Supplied by audio production company, Sonic City AS, the FOH set up included a dLive C1500 fitted with a Waves card for virtual sound check and multi-track recording, paired with a DM0 MixRack, which was equipped with a fibreACE card for the digital split and a Dante card to facilitate external plug-in processing through a DAW. A DX012 expander was also utilised for additional outputs at the FOH position, providing feeds to the light designer, VJ and laser operator. FOH Engineer and Sonic City partner, Sondre Rosseland Sandhaug, commented: “We chose the dLive C1500 package as we needed a fly-rig with a really high channel count for this tour and the choice was ultimately, really simple. dLive provides everything we need; flexible routing, the Tie Lines feature, high-quality sound, reliability and an excellent range of I/O options. There was really no other choice for us on the market. The dLive
system has worked very well on this tour and we’ve really pushed the system to its full potential, particularly in terms of the I/O count.” All stages of the production, from system design to running the shows, ran “smoothly” thanks to the “quality, stability and the intuitive workflow of dLive,” added Monitor Engineer, Einar Norberg. Monitor world featured a second dLive C1500 fitted with a Dante card, which was paired with a CDM48 MixRack equipped with a fibreACE card and connected to DX164-W expanders for additional on-stage I/O. “We went for the DX164-W because of its small footprint. As this tour has been mainly a fly-pack so far, the size and weight has been really important to us,” explained Sandhaug. Norberg added: “We started the tour with the C1500 fly-rig, flew to China for several large shows then when we hit Norway, we expanded to a set up with the dLive S7000 and DM64 MixRack for monitors and S5000 with DM0 at FOH, in order to carry out the larger production in Oslo Spektrum. The transition from C to S class was “seamless” according to Norberg and allowed the team to create an “amazing and elegant” transition in the production. “In a complex and dynamic live production where things are constantly changing, it’s reassuring to be able to put 100% trust in your console and dLive is the perfect tool.” TPi Photo: Allen & Heath www.allen-heath.com 16
