dDay!

F1 Sound Company Ltd hosted dDay, an event dedicated to the Allen & Heath dLive system at London’s Clapham Grand. They invited the audio industry for a day of training, networking and idea-sharing specifically for end-users.

The event presented an overview of one of the most flexible and intuitive digital mixing systems available today, the dLive. Matt Bate, Director led the day’s discussions, alongside Rich Soper from Audio-Technica (Allen & Heath’s UK distributor) who gave a detailed system overview. The day also entailed networking opportunities - plus a free bar and Indian buffet - during which the crowd could get acquainted.

Matt explains: “It seems as though the industry is increasingly busy, and I feel it’s vital to allow people access to equipment in an environment that’s both friendly and familiar to them which is why we opened the doors to a music venue in central London, rather than invite people to attend formal training at our headquarters. This is key to familiarising people with the kit and opening the door to look at the right console for their needs. The live market is a very busy place, but the dLive systems are so accessible around the world, that there is no reason it couldn’t be at the top of your rider.”

The timing had to be right. Holding the session in mid-May means the event fell just between Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt and PLASA Focus in Leeds, yet before ABTT in London, as well as it being just before festival season starts to ramp up. As a company, F1 Sound has seen an increasingly close relationship develop with both Allen & Heath and the the team at Audio-Technica. Plus, as one of the UK’s premier re-sellers and rental houses for dLive, we felt we should be setting the bar with our own seminars.

Matt added: “For me personally, it had to be informal and attractive to all manner of people, from sound consultants to freelancers, to existing users, and potential users. That’s why I wanted to create focus groups on the day, so that we could target information where required. Realistically, we only flash through the desk’s basic functions in the introduction, so it’s more about getting people in front of the system afterwards. With such a variety of attendees, we can’t train a live sound engineer in the same way we would someone from a theatre, and a lecturer needs another set of information altogether, but what we want to get across is that the dLive fits into all environments.”

Allen & Heath Technical Manager, Andy Bell, added: “It was a real pleasure spending time with so many engineers, some with extensive experience of using dLive, others just about to take the plunge. As someone who’s involved in product development, there’s no substitute for the kind of detailed feedback and ideas you only get from listening to the people who depend on your gear. Kudos to F1 Sound Company for creating such a well-run event in a fabulous venue.”

Looking back on the day Matt said of the day that he and his team at F1 Sound Company had delivered: “The event was a total success; we had a great time and got some lovely feedback. On a wider scale, and importantly for the industry, there will be more engineers now specifying dLive consoles on their shows. As we all know, the networking and social time is such a big part of our business, that we will be doing more events of this ilk, so watch our social media channels for further announcements!”