ATI's PARAGON II IN CONTROL AT NEW YORK'S SUMMERSTAGE '04
Central Park SummerStage, New York's premier free performing arts festival, has attracted over 5,000,000 people to its annual three-month season of eclectic music, dance, and spoken word events since it was established in 1986. This year, audiences enjoyed improved sound quality thanks to the addition of a 48-channel ATI Paragon II Production console at front of house.
SIA Acoustics is the design and acoustical consultancy for SummerStage. Company partner Steve Sockey (pictured), who also handles some FOH mixing duties, explained that the console needed to meet several criteria for SummerStage. The ATI Paragon fit the bill perfectly.
He said: "With the previous setup we never had enough outboard gear or enough compressors or gates to make everyone happy. Now that we have 48 compressors and 48 gates everybody is totally happy."
The onboard dynamics of the Paragon II have helped Sockey and guest engineers optimise the sound within the city's SPL limits. "The city has a very strict sound level requirement," he elaborated. "In the past, it was difficult to get a mix that would fit into that pocket. The dynamics on the console allow us to make things fit right there and the concerns over sound level violations have been minimised."
SummerStage '04 featured New York's stellastarr* and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, plus Devo, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds, Lucinda Williams, Nas, and Patti LaBelle.