The Adelaide Convention Centre, South Australia’s premier live conference and corporate event venue, has invested in Yamaha’s PM5D-EX Expanded Digital Mixing System to meet its ever-increasing event production requirements. The complex, which underwent a major extension in 2001 and consistently ranks among the world’s leading convention centres, acquired the high-end PM5D-EX package to augment its already formidable Yamaha digital mixing inventory.

The Centre’s PM5D-EX system comprises Yamaha’s mainstay PM5D-RH V2 digital mixing console packaged with Yamaha’s DSP5D rackmount digital mixing system and DCU5D digital cabling unit. This configuration gives the venue all the inputs, outputs, mixing and processing power of two PM5D-RH consoles - 96 mono and 8 stereo inputs, 48 mix buses, 4 stereo outputs and 16 matrix outputs – all seamlessly controllable from a single control surface.

Further, by using the DSP5D – essentially a PM5D-RH in a remote stage box format – in conjunction with the DCU5D, the Adelaide Convention Centre now has a powerful Cat5 digital multicore solution which can be used up to 100 metres away from the front-of-house mix position.

In addition to the PM5D-EX, the Adelaide Convention Centre’s audio department already boasts two M7CL-48, four LS9-32 and four LS9-16 digital mixing consoles, a lineup which enables the venue to host a number of live corporate events simultaneously and which demonstrates the Centre’s strong preference for Yamaha digital mixing.

“Audio is number one,” says Richard Builder, Technical Services Manager at the Adelaide Convention Centre, emphasising the value of high-quality sound equipment in the venue’s service delivery. “It’s extremely important. We’re in the communication industry, so first and foremost, we have to distribute speech clearly. For every event that we do, before we do lighting, before we do vision, it has to be audio. Audio quality and dispersion are very, very important.”

Peter Lambe, Richard Builder & Kevin Farrant with the Convention Centre's new PM5D-RH V2 console

Given the Adelaide Convention Centre’s ongoing praise for the unmatched reliability and consistency of Yamaha’s digital mixers - a preference which dates back to the Centre’s purchase of one of Australia’s very first M7CL consoles in 2005 - the PM5D-EX was a natural progression, Builder states.

“It was more advantageous for us to continue with the Yamaha family,” he recalls. “They’ve always been good workhorses and do the job very well for us. They always seem to be at the edge of innovation. There’s nothing that any other consoles, for our business, have been able to prove that they do any better.”

Builder explains that the PM5D-EX purchase also had a similar financial motivation to the venue’s previous M7CL and LS9 purchases: unmatched return on investment. “The desks return thousands of dollars,” he notes. “Our clients understand the value of having a digital console over an analogue one. So, they return very well for us.”

“Useability for operators” is a major drawcard of the venue’s all-Yamaha digital mixer lineup, says Kevin Farrant, Technical Production Supervisor for the Adelaide Convention Centre. “It’s great for us that we can train people up on an LS9 and then they can easily move through the M7CL to the PM5D without a lot more training. That’s a real benefit for us.”

“You learn one, you’ve learned them all, really,” adds Peter Lambe, Audio Technician at the Adelaide Convention Centre, remarking on the intuitive learning curve of Yamaha’s digital mixers.

The PM5D-EX’s powerful input, output and processing capability will be put to greatest use at the Centre’s large-scale gala dinners, says Farrant, acknowledging the PM5D as the venue’s marquee console.

Farrant explains: “At the end of the year we do a two-night Christmas party, so corporations can buy one or two tables of ten. And that’s 3,000 [people] a night. So we’d definitely be using everything in that - the PM5D out the front, the DSP5D at the other end, and probably M7CL on monitors.”

From an operational and aesthetic standpoint, the PM5D’s major advantages include superior sound quality, intuitive navigability and generous on-board processing, says Lambe.

“It’s a great desk,” Lambe remarks, having already used the PM5D several times since the venue’s recent purchase. “Every time I use it, I don’t want to put it back. The overall sound quality is very impressive, very sweet. You can tell straight away. And the ease of use is very good as well.”

“The PM5D definitely has a marked improvement in the [Virtual] Rack size – the amount of rack units you can fit in there," Lambe continues, referring to the PM5D V2’s generous on-board Virtual Rack featuring eight high-performance multi-effects processors (including Virtual Circuitry Modelling) and twelve 31-band Graphic Equalisers – processing capacity which is effectively doubled when using the expanded PM5D-EX system.

“You just get more of everything,” adds Farrant. “That’s a great thing.”

In comparison, the Adelaide Convention Centre’s two M7CL-48 consoles are the venue’s ‘do-it-all’ desks with typical applications ranging from medium to large-scale conferences and dinners. The M7CL’s advantages include its intuitive touch screen, Centralogic interface and fast set-up time, says Lambe.

“The great thing about the M7CL is that they’re so quick to program,” says Lambe. “It’s just unbelievable.”

The LS9-16 and LS9-32 consoles, on the other hand, have been invaluable in handling the audio requirements for the Adelaide Convention Centre’s smaller events such as corporate meetings.

“They’re a fantastic tool for us because of the small footprint,” Farrant notes, explaining how the LS9 – like the M7CL and PM5D – saves valuable space while eliminating the need for outboard processing equipment.

In addition, the LS9’s MP3 recording capability proves effective for last-minute recording requests during plenary sessions. “Now we can easily just put a USB stick in the side, do a recording of it, give it back to them, and then they’ve got it with them,” Farrant explains.
Yamaha’s digital mixers have proven themselves invaluable to the Adelaide Convention Centre through instant scene recall, vastly improved set-up times and wireless control during soundcheck, factors which have made large-format analogue mixers a thing of the past.

“That’s a real advantage for us - the ability to connect a laptop up to them,” Farrant states, explaining the usefulness of Yamaha’s Studio Manager V2 software for live control of Yamaha digital mixers. “We’ve got tablet PCs that we can use to wander around the room, tune the room, you can go up on stage and you can talk to the musicians about their monitors. You can do all of that right in front of them, or right next to them, rather than yelling at them from one end of the room to the other. That’s one thing that we’ve really enjoyed.”

“Being able to have that remote control [capability] to wirelessly operate a desk is a real benefit for us,” Farrant affirms.

When it comes to after-sales service, support and training, Yamaha has been second-to-none, Farrant adds. “All after-sales service has been fantastic,” he recalls. “We’ve never had a problem. Any time we’ve ever had any issues, we’ve been able to sort them out rather quickly.”

The Adelaide Convention Centre’s future will see greater use of the complex’s Ethernet and fibreoptic backbone for audiovisual purposes, as well as a physical expansion planned in the next five years, says Builder, adding that this future may include further investment in Yamaha equipment and greater involvement of Yamaha’s already formidable audio networking capabilities.

“The Adelaide Convention Centre’s mission statement is to bring tourism dollars into South Australia,” Builder notes. “That’s first and foremost our job. So, it’s working very well. We bring millions of dollars into South Australia every year, and I’m certain the South Australian government would like to continue doing that.”

Their complete Yamaha digital mixer inventory (as at Nov 2009) was as follows:
1 x PM5D-EX (i.e., PM5D-RH V2 + DSP5D)
2 x M7CL-48
4 x LS9-32
4 x LS9-16