A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd’s Audio division has supplied one of Yamaha’s revolutionary CL5 digital mixing consoles – along with two Yamaha Rio I/O rackmount units – to Manchester based technical solutions company, Sterling Event Group (SEG).
As a single-source supplier for the corporate, commercial and private event markets, SEG specialise in providing creative, technical and production expertise and skills, coupled with all the latest available technologies.
SEG’s Project Manager and Head of Sound, Ben Marshall explains that they already own several Yamaha digital consoles, which have been in constant use. When looking for a larger digital desk with more onboard features they were naturally attracted back to the Yamaha brand, explaining that they have found Yamaha consoles to be “extremely user friendly” and “reliable”.
AC-ET was amongst the first of a selection of high-end UK Yamaha dealers to take stock of the brand new state-of-the-art CL5 consoles, so when it entered the market, SEG arranged for an on-site demonstration with an A.C. Audio representative straight away.
The CL5 offers an extremely neat package in terms of size and weight for a 72-channel console, and provides a highly intuitive mixing system for a wide range of applications.
It runs natively using the Dante digital audio network protocol with connections between the Dante elements via Cat5e and/or Cat6 cable – for higher channel counts and longer runs, which is very useful and further reduces overall weight and truck-space requirements for transportation.
Amongst many other features, Ben really likes the multi-track record and playback facility as well as the CL5’s Premium Rack, which comes complete with the Rupert Neve Designs five-band Portico 5033 equaliser and Portico 5043 compressor/limiter, which he says sounds “fantastic”.
Up to 16 Premium Rack devices can be assigned, including Yamaha’s ground-breaking VCM technology emulations of other classic analogue devices, which provide your mixes with a selection of vintage hardware effects for a small fraction of the price!
He also likes the custom fader operations and the fact that faders are flexible and can be user configured and assigned precisely as required.
The console is fully expandable via Yamaha’s Rio-3224-D and Rio-1608-D I/O racks, which AC-ET also supplied alongside the console.
Since its arrival, the CL5 has been in constant use on numerous live music, private and corporate events.
Ben reports that all of SEG’s regular engineers are “Really enjoying using the CL5 for live events” and that the console is a “Fantastic sounding product at a good price.”
He concludes that the service and support from AC-ET has been “excellent, helpful and very efficient.”
Yamaha is one of the many premium audio brands available through A.C. Audio, to arrange a demonstration with an A.C. Audio representative please call 0113 255 7666 or email [email protected]
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