UK - Following a highly-demanding and successful evaluation of Soundcraft's Vi6 during the recent iTunes Festival at the Camden Roundhouse, W1 Productions have now invested in their own 64-input digital desk, which will go straight into hire stock.
The Bury St. Edmunds rental company is run by Stuart Turvill, who as production manager of iTunes supervised more than 60 artists (representing all genres), who played live at the venue throughout the month of July. Incoming sound engineers used the resident Vi6s, which completed arduous duty cycles in both the FOH and monitor positions.
"The obvious reason for choosing the Vi6 then - and for purchasing it now - was because it is extremely straightforward to operate," says Turvill. "We had mainly used other digital brands until then, and although these have their strengths, the Vi6 is a genuine walk-on digital desk."
Whether or not the Vi6 had been first choice for incoming sound engineers at the Rounhouse, Stuart Turvill acknowledges that "it was a console that everyone would comfortably work with - and that, given the current fragmented state of the desk market, is no small thing."
The clincher, he said, was the exemplary support he receives from both Andy Brown at Soundcraft, and Gary Dent, the Soundcraft specialist at Sound Technology, the company's UK distributor. "This has been both enormously reassuring and extremely helpful. It's refreshing to deal with distributors and manufacturers who take such a genuine interest in the work that rental companies do. We have already found the Vi6 to be a high-demand item among many of our customers."
