Dua Lipa kicked off her 80+ date Radical Optimism Tour in November 2024 in Asia. The tour visited Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK, including two shows at Wembley Stadium that saw over 160,000 tickets selling-out in a matter of minutes. Front of house engineer, Will Nicholson, and monitor engineer, Alex Cerutti, are both utilising DiGiCo Quantum 852s, supplied by Britannia Row, a Clair Global Company.
At front of house, Nicholson has four SD Racks loaded with 32bit cards, plus an Orange Box with Dante and HMA cards. He relies on the Fourier transform.engine for his plugin needs, appreciating the latest integration with his console.
“DiGiCo has always stood out for me because of the consoles’ functionality, robustness and honest approach to sonics,” he said. “I’ve made use of the transform suite to access some of my favourite plugins, including the UAD Distressor, 1176 and the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. The transform.engine is very solid, and the automation makes it incredibly versatile. It’s now my only plugin engine, which has made time alignment so much quicker. Having access to a massive variety of plugins has been of real benefit to my mix and I can test and deploy techniques that were limited before.”
For Cerutti, the large surface layout of the Quantum 852 has allowed him to customise his view and keep his workflow as efficient as possible.
“The Quantum 852 is a huge step forward. I’ve been using DiGiCo consoles on and off since the D1 and D5 days and really appreciate not having to create socket files!” he explained. “I’ve used SD7s and SD8s and keep coming back to DiGiCo consoles because I don’t have to change my set-up or mix for the console. They are as configurable as I need them to be.”
The Quantum 852 is highly versatile and the engineers are both making use of the expanded touch screen capabilities. For Cerutti, moving the layer select buttons to a touch screen makes navigation of multiple channels much easier. He appreciates the improved access to channel meters and the added diagnostic visibility, too.
For Nicholson, the spacious layout of the Quantum 852 and increased options for scale and resolution of the metering has helped him refine his display. It is features like these, as well as the spacious layout, that also keep him coming back to DiGiCo.
“I really like the big screens and loads of Macro options, and responsive faders mean the tactile experience is a bit more natural,” he expanded. “Having multiple metering options is extremely valuable making lots of information available to me. The diagnostic meter on the bridge is a small, but excellent tool. I also really like Mustard processing and I’m also using the MSE expander on a handful of channels, which has been handy. It’s a quality addition and, thanks to the V20 upgrades, Macros have got even more capable.”
Communication between engineers is key, especially during the performance, and Cerutti has created a channel Macro that he is using as a talk button, allowing him to be more efficient with his rotary controls. For wider communication, the integration with their Riedel comms system has improved workflow and management of the whole comms system.
Nicholson is using a similar system, enabling fast desk state changes that quickly flip between pre-show and show states for fail-safe communication. This also comes in handy for spare microphone channels, so EQ and processing can be quickly applied if a spare is required. When a large amount of information requires processing at speed, having a smooth and reliable workflow is invaluable. Snapshots and Macros are all part of making the console work for the engineers, and DiGiCo’s flexible FGPA powered processing ensures it can always keep up. As the pair conclude, it is a system that is working well for them and delivering the best results for their artist.
“There are two significant benefits to using two Quantum 852s,” Nicholson noted. “One is harmonic; we have a shared sonic space. Secondly, it’s a big help for problem solving: if you’re scratching your head trying to solve an issue, having that shared language and setup doubles your chances of success. I make extensive use of the group functionality on the Quantum 852 for my mix setup. We have quite a few inputs, returns and groups and I really appreciate how I can quickly flip between banks to see the relevant input processing and associated routing.”
“The amount of information I have to hand and the speed at which I can access it makes everything easier,” Cerutti concluded. “We both agree that the support is excellent, too. Whether you’re mixing a support band, or a stadium artist, both Brit Row and DiGiCo are exemplary.”
