In May 2021, the team from Forefront Productions travelled to long-term client Enjoy Church in Sunshine, Victoria, to compliment the technical production team behind Adore 2021 Women’s Conference.
Enjoy Church’s flagship House of Worship in Sunshine hosts Adore Conference annually and Forefront have been on board since its inception thirteen years ago providing the Adore stage with the latest in world-class AV technology, including PA and Digital mixing solutions to support the live presentations that adorn the events roster.
With a legacy stretching back to the early 90s, Forefront is no stranger to large-scale stage production and are often early adopters of new live audio technologies- including an extended history of investing in DiGiCo mixing solutions. Adore 2021 presented Forefront with an ideal opportunity to road-test their newly acquired DiGiCo Quantum 338 and KLANG immersive in-ear mixing system, whilst offering their clients an array of technical advantages that would be difficult to eclipse.
The Quantum 338 sports a host of new mix and interface features, representing a dramatic step up in processing power and connectivity. With a sleek new look and design improvements in droves, the Quantum 338 has recently carved itself a space on many production company’s ‘most wanted’ lists. Nick Burns, Forefront’s Managing Director, reflects on driving the console during its first real-world exercise:
“It was great operating our new Quantum 338 on its inaugural outing. After what seemed like a year of worldwide lockdown, it was such a joy to get behind the new console and put into practice a lot of my workflow revisions I had been conjuring. The Quantum range allows me to do so much on-board the console, using less outboard like Waves.”
The Quantum338, like the Quantum 7 before it, features all the benefits of the new Quantum engine, including Nodal Processing, True Solo, Mustard Processing and Spice Rack. Nodal processing enables a full complement of channel processing to be allocated to each aux send (allowing a unique mix tailored for the artist or the audience) whilst Mustard processing is a new set of channel processing strips designed to work alongside standard channel processing.
“Mustard processing opens up a whole new range of options and colour for the sonic palette, and we’ve had fantastic results with Nodal processing- such a great feature to exploit, and the recently updated spice rack is sure to prove a favourite. The ergonomics and workflow of the 338 are also great; the new screens and scribble strips are responsive, clear, and tactile,” explains Nick.
The event also saw Forefront provide musicians with ‘3D’ monitoring thanks to KLANG’s immersive mixing system- providing performers with a 360° in-ear listening experience.
“We’re very excited about the application of KLANG for many of our installation and church clients; firstly for its great user control interface and secondly for its sonic impact. For many of our installation and church clients who have challenges with the time to spend on pulling great in-ear mixes, the instant spatial impact of KLANG gives so much separation and clarity- instantly allowing musicians unprecedented mix quality. Not only that- but mixes can be saved. Even song by song.”
Run via a KLANG DMI card inside a DiGiCo Orange Box, Forefront made use of the immersive mix technology through a DiGiCo SD9 console, which was set up as the event’s stage monitoring.
“We’re already seeing a lot of positive feedback from our use of KLANG. It was great hearing chatter from the musicians and singers backstage on how they could suddenly hear everything, but at the same time felt their own performances were cutting through the mix. KLANG 3D immersion is more of an improvement over stereo, than stereo was from mono.”
With clients throughout Australia, the USA and the Asia Pacific region, Forefront Productions consistently demonstrate their commitment to providing the latest in live audio technology, as Nick Burns summarises:
“We look forward to getting the Quantum consoles and KLANG out and about for demo so people can get ‘hands on’ with the technology. Forefront will be offering availability at our warehouse for demo and hands on sessions. We are also excitedly awaiting the arrival of the Quantum 225, which I’m sure will be hugely popular with lots of our Installation clients- having the full gamut of Quantum features at a very affordable price point.”
