Allen & Heath's Qu-16 Manages International Athletics Meet

	The Qu-16 at the Athletissima event.

Swiss PA company, Auditech, employed the company's new Allen & Heath Qu-16 compact digital mixer as the front-of-house mixer at an international athletics meet, Athletissima. Held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland, Athletissima attracts a host of top athletes and several world records were set during the games.

The stadium's front-of-house audio is divided into four zones, three (north tribune, round east, round west) fed through an iDR-8 matrix mixer, with the VIP area (south tribune) fed directly from the Qu-16 front-of-house mixing desk. Speakers comprise an EV rig in the north tribune, Audio Performance in rounds east and west, and a Nexo system in the south tribune.

The Qu-16 managed audio from the commentators -- stationed in the commentary box and trackside, as well as audio from the giant plasma screens and the closing ceremony finale fireworks. The Qu-16 also fed commentary to a RTS HD broadcast 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!" explains front-of-house engineer, Roland Dupertuis.