The PA People takes on Grand Prix with Yamaha

Published: July 20, 2011 ASIA

AUSTRALIA: Sydney-based production company The PA People took on the responsibility of providing trackside audio alongside a wealth of other audio requirements for Melbourne’s Formula One Qantas Australian Grand Prix for the first time in March, supplying Yamaha mixing consoles for the event.

Included within the requirements for the system was a network of trackside loudspeakers spanning the 5.3km circuit; conference systems in both the National and International Media Centres with CobraNet feeds to and from the ‘GP TV’ trackside broadcast; a number of entertainment locations throughout the grounds and the responsibility of playing back the Australian National Anthem to millions of television viewers around the world.

An M7CL digital mixer was supplied for the larger entertainment mixing duties, while LS9-16 consoles were used to facilitate the efforts of the Media Centres. Each LS9-16 desk was fitted with an MY16CII CobraNet expansion card providing 16 mic ins, 16 CobraNet ins and outs, 32 mono mix channels, four stereo mix channels, 16 mix busses, eight matrix busses, stereo bus, mono bus, up to 16 x 31-band graphic EQs and up to four SPX2000 multi-effect units. Up to 95 additional dynamics processors on both mix channels and busses were also available.

‘Choosing the LS9 for the media conference systems just made sense,’ explained Chris Dodds, managing director of The PA People. ‘The combination of on-board DSP processing and the availability of CobraNet I/O made integration of the mixers with the rest of the control system simple and foolproof.’

Jarrod Dunn, power and communications superintendent at the Grand Prix, added he believed ‘The PA People have done a great job in their first year at the event. The F1 GP is a challenging project and requires a great deal of skill and management to deal with the dynamic environment. The efforts of The PA People in 2011 are the benchmark and it is expected that this standard is either met or exceeded in future years. The PA People should look forward to many GPs to come.’