Roland Professional A/V Division Offers Support for Dalai Lama 80th Birthday Celebration

	The Roland M-5000 OHRCA Live Mixing Console, supplied by Roland's Professional A/V division for the Dalai Lama's 80th birthday celebration. Photo: Peak Mind Foundation.

On July 4, 2015, a diverse mix of celebrities, admirers, and close friends of His Holiness the Dalai Lama gathered at Rancho Los Lomas in Silverado, California, at a private event to celebrate the exiled religious leader's 80th birthday. Celebrities in attendance included Forest Whitaker (who introduced His Holiness), Linda Perry, Sara Gilbert, and Aloe Blacc, who performed an acoustic set. The event was held by the Peak Mind Foundation, an organization whose mission is to inspire individuals "to achieve peak performance through the power of meditation" and "to offer a hub to unplug, recharge, and tap into that space where brilliant ideas are born." A key member of the Peak Mind Foundation's event team is Kerry Brown, known as a multi-instrumentalist, artist manager, record producer, engineer, and composer; a longtime associate of The Smashing Pumpkins; and a founding member of veteran indie group Catherine, among countless other credits. Brown has a close ongoing relationship with Roland Corporation US, and he was able to involve the Roland Professional A/V division, to supply a range of products and support for the event.

Brown's relationship with Roland began earlier this year, after an artist development meeting between Roland and a group he manages, Motobunny. As a user of Roland products since his early music career, Brown was excited to be developing his professional relationship directly with Roland personnel. He was inspired to integrate Roland's MI and Pro A/V products as a centerpiece of his new project, Sound Lab, a Burbank, California-based creative space for artists of all disciplines and skill levels, founded with the Six01 artist collective, of which Brown is a key member. Now known as Sound Lab Six01 Studio Powered by Roland, the space is quickly becoming a hub for area musicians and composers, and has formalized the link between Roland and Brown's varied industry endeavors.

Michael Hebb, multi-discipline intellectual and chef, contacted Brown about a month ago and personally asked him to join the planning team for the Dalai Lama event as technical director, and Brown knew all the right questions to ask: venue size and location, and detailed technical needs. Hebb then put Brown in touch with Michael Trainer, founder of Peak Mind Foundation, who brought Brown into the group. Brown's next call was a no-brainer: his new friends at Roland. Brown notes, "Their response, immediately, was, 'How can we help?' We ended up using a ton of Roland gear. The sound at the venue was great, and the stream and recorded tracks were great, too. I couldn't have done it without Roland's help, with their gear and the on-site support. Words can't express the gratitude I have for the company -- they went above and beyond, and on a holiday weekend no less."

Roland supplied the following products: M-5000 OHRCA Live mixing console, R-1000 48-Track recorder/player, S-2416 24x16 Digital Snake stage unit, V-800HD Multi-Format video switcher, VC-1-DL Bi-directional SDI/HDMI with delay and frame sync, HT-RX01 HDBaseT receiver, and HT-TX01 HDBaseT transmitter. The M-5000 was used to mix front-of-house, streaming mix for broadcast and five press feeds. All inputs were recorded to the R-1000 for later editing. The web stream was produced by Roland Corporation US's video team using V-800HD and VC-300HD. They also used the HT-TX01 and HT-RX01 for long-distance HDMI runs from PTZ cameras. It was broadcast using the LiveStream account to the Peak Mind and Dalai Lama websites.

Key members of Roland Corporation US were on hand to lend their support, including Christian Delfino, vice president sales and marketing, professional A/V; Chad McCutcheon, video/webcast producer; Marc Esquivel, video production manager; Ruby BC, social media and content curator, and additional support form Brian Alli, vice president, sales, and Rebecca Eaddy, marketing communications manager.

The M-5000 performed great and was able to easily produce the three separate audio mixes as well as handle three separate speaker delays. It was Brown's first time using the M-5000 for front-of-house, and he was very happy with the results. "The 5000 and the rest of the gear performed flawlessly, and without their help and support, we never would have been able to broadcast this out to the world," stated Brown.

Alli stated, "We were honored to be asked by Kerry Brown of Six01 Studios and Starry Records to help realize the vision Peak Mind had for this event. Our partnership with Kerry and his crew is a very special one. We constantly challenge each other into new and exciting areas of the business and this is a great example. While our focus in the industry on the surface may seem different, with his focus on recording and production and ours on the MI product side, we have both learned how through collaborations like these, we accomplish so much more and can reach so many more people. We have plenty more exciting things in the works soon to be announced so, stay tuned!"