LEADING UK VENUE TRANSFORMED BY MIDAS TOUCH
The International Convention Centre (ICC) Birmingham is on a long-term mission to install Midas consoles throughout the extensive venue. Its latest acquisitions are two Veronas and three Venices for five of the ICC’s conference halls. This brings the total of brand new Midas consoles to be purchased by the venue over the past 18 months to nine, including a Heritage 1000 in Hall 3 which is used for large awards shows, corporate events and prestigious product launches.
The ICC has always strived to be the leading conference venue in Europe, recently winning an International Confex Award for Best UK Venue for the third year running. In line with this policy, senior sound technician Ian Gould and event manager Martin Hewitt-Moran decided two years ago to equip the halls with what they considered the best combination of equipment, which naturally included Midas consoles.
“The reasoning behind acquiring Midas desks for all the control rooms is that we have used them for so long and we trust them to do exactly what we ask with a minimum of fuss,” says Gould. “There are a wide range of desks to suit our different sizes of halls, while the EQ does exactly what it says on the tin.”
All the consoles have been supplied by Midas’ UK distributor Shuttlesound. “The ICC is one of the most important conference venues in the UK,” says Shuttlesound’s Jason Kelly. “Having a large majority of their halls equipped with both Midas consoles and Klark Teknik processing shows their commitment to providing the highest possible audio quality for their clients. And we are now in a position to continue our long relationship with the ICC as Midas develops its digital technology.”
This ongoing task is now almost complete, with 90% of the venue’s halls being Midas-equipped. Gould is planning to upgrade the console in Hall 5 with another Verona, while he is watching with interest to see how Midas expands its digital range, with the main control area of Hall 1, used exclusively for large-scale conferences, in mind.
Gould has also discovered that the many sound engineers working in the ICC also look to Klark Teknik signal processing equipment as standard. A Helix DN9340E dual/DN9344E quad EQ system installed in Hall 1 has proved very popular with visiting engineers, as have DN9848E system controllers in Halls 1 and 5 as well as several DN360 graphics and DN410s dual parametric EQs in general stock.
Photo caption: L to R: Martin Hewitt-Moran; Ian Gould, with some of the ICC’s Midas consoles
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Editors' information:
Klark Teknik was founded in 1974 and in the years immediately following, their innovative approach to design and development allowed them to introduce some truly groundbreaking designs. Klark Teknik was responsible for the world’s first digital delay and digital reverb units, however it was their concepts for equalisation devices that really changed the world of professional audio resulting in the DN370 and the famous DN360. Today Klark Teknik continues to bring innovation in design and dedication to engineering and sonic quality in both the analogue and digital realm of signal processing, with the Square ONE and Show Command ranges updating the brand.
Midas live performance mixing consoles have been used by the world's most demanding sound engineers, performers and rental companies for three decades. The company strives to raise the standards of sonic quality through its programme of continual research and development, implementing new control functionality and user-friendly desk operation to anticipate and accommodate the ever-evolving needs of audio professionals who specify Midas consoles for their major tours, festivals, international events, broadcast projects and prestigious fixed installations.