Eclipse jazzes things up in Stockholm

June 2010

Set against the stunning backdrop of Stockholm harbour, the Stockholm Jazz Festival is a major event on the European summer jazz calendar. Running since the early ‘80s, the event has attracted some of the biggest names, not just in jazz but also pop, rock, soul and hip-hop with previous performances from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Mary J Blige, Sting and Kanye West to name but a few. This year the line-up included Missy Elliott, Kool & the Gang, The Brand New Heavies, Omar, Gretchen Parlato and many more. Leading Swedish pro audio rental and distribution company, Electrosound, was contracted to provide the FoH and audio distribution system for the event, which included an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console and EtherSound/MADI network plus an Sy80 console on monitors.

Electrosound’s Brollan Söderström explained that when he provides systems for festivals, he often tries to bring an analogue console along with the digital Eclipse at FoH. On this occasion he used his trusty ATI Paragon-II. “I loaded the Innovason system full of output cards so that I could feed the Paragon-II from the direct outs of the Eclipse. In this way, the digital multicore is exploited to the maximum – it was feeding the Sy80 monitor console, the two FoH consoles AND I used my Innovason DioMADI ES interface which converts EtherSound to MADI for signal distribution to the Swedish radio OB trucks, which broadcast live on each of the three days. This in itself was great, but the best thing was that even the analogue guys were able to experience M.A.R.S. for themselves whilst still using the analogue console! It was really fantastic and a great demonstration of the power of digital technology, and the versatility of the M.A.R.S onboard recorder Once you’ve used it, you wonder how on earth you ever managed without it!”