NEWARK, Delaware — The University of Delaware recently purchased a HARMAN Soundcraft Vi1 audio mixing console for use at its football games and other major events around campus. Joe Dombroski, Audio Engineering Technician and his colleagues at IT-University Media Services were looking for a new board to complete the expanding audio needs of the University’s large events. After comparing a number of products they chose the Soundcraft Vi1. The board was purchased through New Jersey-based Total Video Products. “This board is perfect for University Media Services needs,” stated Dombroski. “It’s mostly used for entertainment during home football games and larger events around campus including commencements. I’ve worked with Soundcraft for a long time and I still have a Soundcraft Series 5 that I will never get rid of. It’s a classic.”
Dombroski found the Vi1 to be an ideal fit for a variety of reasons. “It has so much horsepower in a small footprint, it’s great to be able to run every channel through one CAT5 cable and know it can support it all,” he said. “I believe that sonically the Vi Series are the best boards out there. They have warm sounding pre-amps that draw you in and the Lexicon reverbs make everything so smooth and natural. It’s surprising sometimes that it isn’t an analog board, considering how good it sounds.”
Dombroski also spoke highly of the Vi1’s Common Mode Rejection Ratio—the preamps’ ability to reject noise. “So many boards have issues with grounding and interference,” he said. “They are quiet in the studio or on the bench but they light up with noise in the real world. I’ve never had a buzz or any sort of noise come out of the console. The number-one challenge of live audio is keeping things quiet—as soon as you have even five dB of extra noise it will degrade a mix.”
Along with the overall sound quality, Dombroski praised the setup and ease of use that the Vi1 offers. “The Vistonics™ is wonderful, having the ability to scan across the board and see clearly what the settings are is great,” he said. “It saves time and hassle instead of scrolling through many different menus. The multiple MADI cards are great and so convenient, giving so much flexibility to do a house mix or a multi-track mix, with endless options.”
The University of Delaware relies on other HARMAN equipment as well, including JBL VRX and VP Series loudspeakers, along with BSS Audio processing.
For Dombroski, IT-University Media Services and the University of Delaware, the Soundcraft Vi1 could not be any better to suit their audio needs. “I’ve compared a lot of boards, and nothing is as good as the Vi1. Even when paying for more expensive boards you won’t get the same audio quality that you do with Soundcraft,” Dombroski concluded.
For more information on the University of Delaware, please visit: www.udel.edu
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.8 billion for the twelve months ending September 30, 2011.
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