A DiGiCo Quantum 225 has replaced a “tired” mixing desk at a Sussex art venue. Komedia Brighton, one of the Sussex coastal town’s premier arts venues, had for years relied upon a front-of-house mixing desk that was no longer up to the task.
“Our previous console was pretty tired, and it was getting to the point where we were having to spend time explaining the features to visiting engineers, which isn’t ideal,” explained Emma Henderson, technical manager, Komedia Brighton.
“Having a robust, industry-standard mixing desk was important. It needed to do a lot; not just sound great, but fit into our budget and have easily accessible features that would be recognisable to as many people as possible,” she added.
“Training is also important to us; we have a huge training programme. When we send the trainees out into the world, they’re inevitably coming across the DiGiCo family of desks, so if they have that grounding, it’s a massive bonus.”
Completely self-funded, Komedia Brighton values a sense of community and raises money for local charities. Henderson commented that DiGiCo’s similarly strong sense of community was part of what convinced them to go with the Quantum 225.
“DiGiCo are well known for their support and that’s another reason that we chose the Quantum 225,” she said. “DiGiCo’s Tim Shaxson came to train us all when the desk was brand new and I said, ‘Let’s put the desk in! Let’s do a show in three hours. Let’s do it because we’ve got out of the box!’ I think he thought I was pretty out there, in a good way I hope, but he stuck with us.”
With such diverse performances on a nightly basis – and 700 shows a year – Komedia needed a flexible mixing desk. The Quantum 225 Set Spill feature allows engineers to group faders together for easy recall at any point, allowing the desk to be switched from serving a stand-up comedian to a club night at the touch of a button. Another important factor for Komedia was space: it makes the most of its 415 standing capacity venue, and the compact dimensions of the Q225 are a bonus.
“We do such a massive range of shows with incredibly tight turnarounds between each one,” Henderson continued. “We’re a ‘disco’ loadout kind of venue, so we needed something you can switch around easily. With the Quantum 225, you can swap the layouts around and you can boot sessions really easily. That means you can jump from a gig into a club really fast, and then you take it from being set up to do a gig to being set up to do comedy, which was a massive boon.”
