An Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital mixer supplied by Swiss firm Auditech was set up at FOH for this year’s Athletissima international athletics event.

Held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland, Athletissima draws in many of the world’s biggest athletes and has been the event where many world records have been broken in the past.

The venue’s FOH audio is split into four zones – with three (North Tribune, Round East, Round West) fed through an iDR-8 matrix mixer, while the VIP area (South Tribune) is fed directly from the Qu-16. The speaker arrangement consists of an Electro-Voice rig in the North Tribune, Swiss-made Audio Performance units in rounds East and West, and a Nexo system in the South Tribune.

The mixer manages audio from the commentators located in the commentary box and trackside, as well as audio from the plasma screens and closing ceremony finale fireworks. The Qu-16 also feeds commentary to a RTS HD OB truck.

“QU-16’s excellent preamp quality, combined with exceptional EQ and transparent compressor and limiter, helps me to easily cope the commentators voices over the very loud crowd. The compact size of the mixer was also very important as production space is limited. Thanks to the Qu-16 no additional outboard gear is needed, there is plenty of headroom to cope with the very loud crowd encouraging the athletes.” commented FOH engineer Roland Dupertuis.

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