This project first came about over a rather nice lunch and a fine bottle of Malbec shared between Andy Rose, Griff and Mark at the BAFTA Club.

Andy, who is normally to be found inside a broadcast truck rather than at the back of a concert hall has been Sound Engineer for the Paraorchestra for several years.

The Paraorchestra is the world’s first professional ensemble of disabled musicians, founded by British conductor Charles Hazlewood and television director Claire Whalley in November 2011.
Following their world debut at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in 2012, they are pioneering a global movement to recognise and showcase disabled musicians with extraordinary abilities.

Andy’s idea for this concert was for all the musicians to sound as natural as possible. He wanted a small speaker to be placed near each musician so their sound could be localised to their position
To achieve this we supplied 16 small d&b E3 Speakers placed by every player and fed with it’s own individual mix. Each musician was also give the choice of a small monitor or earphone for monitoring

Our team of Engineers, Cara Smith, Griff Hewis and Stephen Hughes travelled to Birmingham to work with the Orchestra for 2 days of rehearsal and the main Concert on the Saturday night.
Andy was keen to mix this gig from the front of the auditorium in Birmingham Symphony Hall to achieve a natural balance. To achieve this we added a Wireless Router to the Digico and Andy
was able to mix from the Stalls with an ipad running the Digico App. Despite some bemused looks from the audience, the balance was very natural and the concert was warmly received.