HF EVENT SERVICES GETS SOUNDCRAFT Vi3000
29 March 2016
HF Event Services are a one-stop-shop production company based in Dural in Sydney’s north west, providing sound, lights, vision, staging and crewing for concerts and events. Owner and Technical Director Colin Baldwin recently expanded its fleet of Soundcraft consoles with the purchase of a Vi3000. Its 96 inputs, 24 stereo busses, 24 input faders and choice of local or remote I/O gives HF Event Services a heap of flexibility to cover a diverse range of clients.
The Vi3000 has barely seen the warehouse since its purchase, having gone on Suzi Quatro’s Australian tour, Lee Kernaghan’s ‘Spirit of the ANZACS’ tour, and covered audio duties at events such as The Australian Country Music Awards, and the Hills Shire Council Australia Day Concert at Bella Vista Farm, which featured performances by artist such as David Campbell and Christine Anu.
“Most of the guest engineers who have never used a Vi3000 say it takes little time to learn before they’re zipping around the console with no problems,” said Colin Baldwin. “Some engineers that have used a Vi6 before have commented it’s a very similar workflow. We’ve had no negative feedback or comments from any guest FOH engineer, even when they’ve specified another brand and model as their preference.”
“The Vi3000’s sound is warm and transparent; the preamps never sound brittle,” said regular HF Event Services engineer Brad Scott-Kemmis. “The touch screens are fast to navigate, and having multiple screens means less button pressing to get an overview. Functions like the gang button are very useful, for example when switching multiple channel’s auxiliaries from pre to post. Linking stereo channels from different mix layers saves fader space, and the ability to place any bank of faders to the far right is nice as well.”
HF Event Services have a strong relationship with the country music community, as a long-term supplier to the Tamworth Country Music Festival. “We’ve been going to Tamworth for over 10 years now,” explained Colin. “We provide full production at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre and other venues around town. We’ve been successful in being involved in the Country Music Awards for the last few years, and we won the tender to provide full production for the Golden Guitar awards last and this year. Our work for Lee Kernaghan has come about through my relationship with his management. We offered him a package for the ‘Spirit of the ANZACS’ tour including production design, sound and lighting. Stephen White Management have commented they are happy and excited to get their production needs from the one shop, with the right attitude and an excellent package price.”
HF Event Services typically runs its Vi3000 with a 64 in, 32 out Soundcraft Vi Stagebox, and link in their Soundcraft Vi1 console for monitor duties. “The Vi3000 is so easy to integrate,” enthused Colin. “We’ve got a lot of events coming where our Vi3000 will be used at either FOH or monitors.”
As both a customer and dealer of Soundcraft distributor Jands, Colin feels reassured by their support. “We own several other Soundcraft consoles, like the Si Compact and smaller analogue models. Jands has looked after us very well over the years with Rod McKinnon, our Jands Rep, providing valuable advice and follow up service as we need it.”
More info:
Soundcraft: www.soundcraft.com
Australian Distributor: www.jands.com.au
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