11/2/2011 [Commercial Audio]
Yamaha Commercial Audio provides loudspeakers, amplification, processing and mixing for the December 2010 Bilyana Festival of Folk Rhythm and Life in Eldorado, Victoria
The Bilyana Folk Rhythm & Life Festival is a three-day music and arts festival that started from almost literal grass roots 16 years ago. Located in Eldorado approx 30km south east of Wangaratta, Victoria, it is an event that has a tradition of supporting local up-and-coming bands plus larger commercial acts from all over Australia. It has nurtured and hosted acts as diverse as Archie Roach, Dan Sultan, The Melodics, Chris Wilson and Nicky Bomba. The festival has grown steadily and now hosts an annual crowd of 5000, limited only by its setting within the beautiful Chiltern Mt Pilot National Park.
Melbourne production company Richer Sounds have had the pleasure of supplying P.A. equipment to the event for the past 5 years. From Friday 3 to Sunday, December 5 2010, Yamaha Commercial Audio came on board to support the festival with F.O.H., foldback and backline equipment.
Yamaha’s top-of-the-line I Series Speakers were deployed to run F.O.H. duties on Stage 2, with a respectable 4x 18” subs, 4x 15” subs and 4x 12” mid-highs deployed to cover the 800-strong crowd. Three high-powered T5n power amps kept the rig pumping, and a DME24-N programmable DSP unit handled all processing duties.
“The lows were tight and the tops crisp and dynamic. Every engineer who used the rig over the 3 day period had the same amazed positive response and a very changed opinion of Yamaha’s Commercial Audio speaker products”, says Richard King of Richer Sounds.
Richard’s main job for the festival was handling the extensive foldback duties over on The Main Stage, with a big rig consisting of 8 12” wedges, an 18” sub and 15” mid-high as drum fill, all run through DME processing and powered by PC-N Series power amps.
“The sound quality of the I Series speakers as foldback was very impressive, especially for their size and weight,” reports Richard. “Everyone loved the on-stage sound. Again, lots of surprised faces from foldback engineers when tuning the system; almost flat graphic EQ settings for most sends.”
All mixing duties on The Main Stage were handled by a fully integrated EtherSound system consisting of an M7CL48-ES digital mixing surface at F.O.H., three SB168-ES digital stage boxes at stage and an LS9-32 digital mixer on foldback.
Prior to the festival, Richard had never used an LS9-32. Thrown in at the deep end, Richard came to grips with the analogue-style operation of the desk almost immediately. “Ease of use-wise, I thought it was brilliant,” he stated. “Sends on Fader mode is great because you get to everything so quickly.”
All acts on The Main Stage were recorded using a 32 channel Dante interface fitted to the M7CL-48ES, enabling live multi-track recording via a single piece of Cat5 into a laptop running Steinberg’s Nuendo 5 DAW software. The Dante ethernet audio protocol from Audinate eliminates the need for external computer audio interfaces, making every Yamaha digital desk capable of quick and easy multi-track recording.
Yamaha Commercial Audio offers a complete line of professional audio products for the commercial recording, production, broadcast, project studio, live sound and sound reinforcement markets.
Yamaha Music Australia is a wholesaler of musical instruments, audio and video products, and a provider of music education. Yamaha’s products and services are renowned for their superior quality and innovative designs.
For product specific information, media enquiries and images please contact:
Jason Allen
National Sales and Support Manager
Commercial Audio Division
Email: jason_allen@gmx.yamaha.com
Tel: (03) 9693 5272
Mob: 0418 262 318
