Red Power's DiGiCo SD8 Performs in Machu Picchu

The famous Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru is considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. On July 7 this year, to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of its rediscovery by North American adventurer and archaeologist Hiram Bingham, Andrés Cuadros and Guillermo Riera, owners of rental company Red Power, provided a sound and light spectacular for the celebration, with a DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console being pivotal to the audio design.

With overall direction from acclaimed Peruvian movie director, Luis Llosa, 200 actors, under the direction of Eduardo San Roman, took part in the show of dance, lights, fireworks and music. A performance from Peruvian singer Tania Libertad was accompanied by the Cusco Symphony Orchestra, directed by Coco Salazar and a rhythm section, made up of drums, keyboards, electric guitar and bass, with Manuel Miranda on wind instruments.

Red Power is considered the most important audio/visual rental company in Peru and has invested in the SD8 because of its sound quality, size, software, and versatility.

These qualities also determined the console's use for the Machu Picchu project, with size being of particular importance in the logistics of equipment transportation, as the 15th-century Inca site is located some 7,972' above sea level.

"I used 56 inputs on the SD8," explains Cuadoros. "Two for playback, two for video sends, two for Libertad, and two for FX audio. All of this was via the eight inputs in the console, with the other 48 via the MADI rack for the orchestra and musicians.

"For outputs, I used two for Tania Libertad for her Sennheiser in-ear monitors, two for the main PA, one for an FX system, one for a monitor send that was 400m [131'] away from us using a wireless system, two for a TV recording and eight for orchestra and musicians' monitors.

"I handled the PA, TV recording and monitors all from the same console, using two snapshots for the recorded and live sections."

The SD8 provided Cuadros with a lot of flexibility. "There wasn't much time to sound check," he recalls. "So I used the offline software to prepare as much as possible in my hotel, and then had the opportunity to store the rest of my work during soundcheck."

Cuadros loves his SD8, but was slightly concerned about how the console would perform at high altitude.

"Everything worked perfectly," he says. "This was a project that required our strongest effort and we were supported by our fantastic team. I believe that we have managed something that would have been impossible without the latest technology and the SD8 played an integral part."