Joy Crookes, Juniper Tour

One Stage Rack. Two Console Worlds.

On a touring show, the difficult bit isn’t always getting everything to work. It’s getting everything to work without adding more kit.

For Joy Crookes’ Juniper Tour, FOH was moving to a Waves eMotion LV1 Classic, while monitors remained on DiGiCo. The tour also had to cover clubs, arenas, amphitheatres and festivals, with the system able to grow when larger shows needed more inputs.

The obvious answer would have been to duplicate the stage I/O.

We didn’t want to do that.

Making two systems work together

The existing DiGiCo SD-Rack already provided the stage inputs and outputs for monitors. Rather than adding additional stage racks for FOH, the SD Rack MADI split was brought to FOH and converted to SoundGrid using a DirectOut Prodigy MP.

That meant Waves LV1 could see the same stage inputs without changing the monitor setup or adding another set of stage I/O.

It sounds simple. Getting all the other pieces into the same box was where the Prodigy MP really earned its place.

One box doing a lot of jobs

The Prodigy MP became the hub of the FOH system.

MADI and SoundGrid handled the connection between the stage and LV1. Its onboard DSP took care of matrix mixing, FIR filtering and output processing, while AES and analogue I/O handled the PA and outboard connections.

We also used the USB.IO module to connect a Mac Mini running SuperRack Performer, giving us VST3 processing as hardware-style inserts within LV1 without adding another I/O device. A second SoundGrid connection handled 64×64 multitrack recording, virtual soundcheck and Smaart, alongside QLab playback and show control.

So rather than building a system from a collection of separate boxes, the Pro d igy MP gave us one central place to route, convert and process everything.

And when the show got bigger?

For the larger London dates, we needed more inputs.

A second DiGiCo SD-Rack was added at stage, with a DiGiGrid MGR converting the additional MADI split to SoundGrid. One Cat6A run brought those extra inputs back to FOH.

The core FOH system didn't need redesigning.

That was the real test of the architecture: we could add to it without having to rethink it.

Nifty System Notes

The LV1 gave FOH the workflow we wanted. The DiGiCo system stayed exactly where it needed to be for monitors.

The Prodigy MP was what made those two worlds fit together.

It avoided duplicated stage infrastructure, kept routing and processing in one place, and gave us enough flexibility to handle everything from a club show to a much larger production.

For a touring system, that’s the kind of kit you notice most when you don’t have to think about it.