Wish Ball - Melbourne 2006 - Friday 14/7/2006. The gig was the Make a Wish foundation's annual ball this year at Melbourne's Crown Palladium with a crowd of over 1100. Basically the Make a Wish foundation's aim is to to make wishes come true to children with terminal illnesses.

Check out the size of the speakers, either side of the stage, super small.

A newly formed event company called Apha Zeta Events organised the production at the Palladium which involved everything from a a singer on a swing hanging from the middle of the room to 5 Harley Davidson roaring onto stage to Sub-Zero (the Horse) wandering into the room for a quick interview.

Performances ranged from Line Dancers, Matt Brad Shaw, Bag-pipes, Dale Rider (Boom Crash Opera), Pseudo Echo, Planet Groove and Alyce Platt.

New toys used on the gig: HK audio's Cohedra Compact line array PA system was used for the first time in a Melbourne Venue and it Rocked !! The array consisted of 10 x 8" and horn boxes per side plus 5 bandpass dual 10 subs per side. It was a little leap of faith by Lex Audio Visual to give the system a try on a major event and it certainly didn't let the team down. Clear and evenly distributed mid-highs that didn't blow the front row away and a very tight punchy bass from the dual 10" subs.

Yamaha's M7CL 48 channel all digital console got a run at Crown. As with a lot of the charity gigs at Crown, bump-in and access times are restricted so speed during set-up is an important issue - with that in mind the desk was preset with things like channel names, routing, High Pass, Phantom power etc via USB key before the gig. The main operator
one the night was Brad Parker who was a little anxious about operating the desk for the first time on a gig that involved a lot of stage changes.

With little assistance (mainly assurance) from Guru Alex Hasker (bit of self praise never hurts), he worked his way around the functions he wanted and double checked before saving a scene. The scene saving and fades certainly became useful on the night because there were two main distinct bands on with totally different instruments that couldn't be shared. Pseudo Echo and Planet Groove had vastly different sounds, Pseudo Echo being almost entirely electronic drums and Planet Groove being more typical rock and roll with a 5 piece brass.

Brad the operator sound checked each band, saved them with an obvious name and smoothly recalled them during changeovers. The saving in patching time and size (the only things in the rack next to the M7 was a pair of CD players and talkback system) was another appealing factor with the M7.

Other applications for the M7
Previous applications that Lex Audio Visual has used the M7 has been in an Outside Broadcast site generating the Front Of House program at Flemington racecourse during the bigger race days. (called Flemington TV).  Previously a large analog desk was used which had to man-handled into a 3 x 6 meter side shed and required plenty of outboard gear to make it work. The M7 only had to be supplemented with a Audio Distribution amplifier and playback equipment to get it to do the job. The OB jobs typically require a lot of compressors inserted onto channels as well as digital delays to compensate for digital video processing and conversion delays from several OB trucks. Previously this meant more and more external equipment and patching which was dangerous while on air but the M& could be all configured by the on operator with-out leaving his chair.

The M7's first gig with Lex Audio Visual
The first gig the desk did when it arrived was a rock gig at a new pub in Waterfront City for singer Matt Hetherington and band. The desk was internally split into 2 x 24 channels, the top row being used for 7 sends of foldback from front Of House and the bottom row was used for the usual FOH mix. All EQ and effects were used internally and the only bit of outboard gear was an iPod for background music. Operator Alex Hasker had one hour playing with the desk prior to the gig to get familiar and work out how to set it up for the job...I was impressed, no moments of silence or extreme feedback due to pressing the wrong button.