Aviom pumps sound to Peter Gabriel?s New Blood Orchestra

Aviom Personal Mixers were used to supply sound to 44 musicians during Peter Gabriel’s recent New Blood Orchestra Tour.

The tour, which saw Gabriel performing music from his 2010 Scratch My Back album, as well as tracks from his upcoming New Blood album, stretched over 12 venues across North America.

A simple way of supplying a large number of musicians with a monitor mix that allowed for individual control but didn’t clutter the busy stage set-up was required. The Aviom A-16ii Personal Mixers fulfilled this need, requiring only one Cat-5 cable.

“The Aviom system, in general, was a great performer,” said Dan Ungaretti, orchestra monitor engineer for the tour. “The solid and very fast connecting 16-channel digital audio network was particularly impressive. The multi-channel feature also afforded us the ability to place AC power in just three locations instead of multiple spots throughout the stage.”

Ungaretti utilised a Yamaha PM5D-RH as his monitor console and outfitted it with an Aviom16/o-Y1 A-Net Card. A single Cat-5 ran from the Y1 card to an A-16D A-Net Distributor, positioned under the woodwind riser. The A-16D splits the signal to two additional A-16D Pro A-Net Distributors, located behind the conductor’s podium. The A-16D Pros provide both power and 16 channels of audio from the PM5D to the 22 A-16II Personal Mixers positioned at the base of each music stand throughout the orchestra. This setup allowed Ungaretti to set up quickly, keep the stage clean and control certain aspects of the monitor feeds from the console, while also letting orchestra members customise what they hear.

“The Aviom network kept me in overall control by allowing me to interface and supply the controllers with the exact audio that was necessary,” added Ungaretti. “The musicians were then able to work with the easy-to-use interface of the A-16IIs to have basic control over their headphone levels of the mix that I supplied.”

In addition to the Aviom mixers, the New Blood Tour musicians were equipped with Sennheiser headphones and in-ear monitoring systems, as well as Shure vocal mics, supplied by Firehouse Productions.