Canadian Ballet Company Invests in iLive

Montreal's Les Grands Ballets Canadiens recently purchased an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system, following a trial run on a three-week production of Léonce et Lena. The company selected a system comprising an iDR-32 MixRack and iLive-R72 control surface due to its compactness, flexibility, and versatility, which would be suitable for both touring and installed in their home venue, the Theatre Maisonneuve at the Place des Arts.

Audio sources included a mixture of 30+ pre-recorded tracks, sound effects, and a live orchestra. Three Macbooks, two installed at the front of house and one in the orchestra pit, were set up to run different software packages, including Cricket V2, Qlab V2, and iLive Editor. The pit Macbook contained organ tracks to be played by one of the musicians, while all additional music and sound effects had redundant back-ups and the musicians tracks were controlled from the front of house through a screen-sharing app. Different scenes were triggered/recalled on the iLive system via MIDI. A multi-track recording of the show was also taken using ADAT via an iLive MMO card.

"We chose iLive as we wanted a good sounding compact console that is versatile and flexible," explains Raymond Soly, head of audio for the Grands Ballets. "The company extensively tours medium concert hall venues, and the iLive-R72 surface is perfectly sized, as it easily fits at the rear of this type of venue. The ability to control the MixRack using a PC running iLive Editor was another attraction, as was the possibility of having both FOH and monitors split from the MixRack's I/O. Finally, having the flexibility to assign anything anywhere? Yes!"

The Company plans to expand the current system by adding an iPAD2/Mixpad as well as the 64-channel Dante networking card in preparation for a forthcoming tour of China.