After missing the 2020 Holiday Season, the Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith Christmas Tour returned for the 2021 Holiday Season with the support of Yamaha Rivage PM3 and Rivage PM5 digital mixing consoles. Chosen for their compact footprint without sacrificing the performance of Rivage Series Digital Mixing Systems, a PM3 handled mixing duties at front of house, while a PM5 managed onstage monitoring duties for the performers.
“Since we primarily played theatres and PACs (Performing Arts Centres), we carried less production than we would for an arena tour but, that didn’t mean we could compromise on audio quality,” says Greg Lee, tour manager for the Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, 2021 Christmas Tour. “PM3 and PM5 gave us the same performance and flexibility we’ve come to expect from Rivage Series, in compact work surfaces that made production logistics a little easier and tour accountants a little happier.”
At nearly 95 pounds (43 kg) lighter than a Rivage PM10 desk, the PM5 features an approximately 10 percent smaller footprint and the PM3 roughly a 23 percent smaller footprint than Rivage PM10 and Rivage PM7 consoles. The tour’s PM3 and PM5 control surfaces both utilized Yamaha DSP-R10 mix engines featuring 144 inputs, 72 Mix Outputs, 36 Matrix with a complete slate of plug-ins from Rupert Neve Designs, Bricasti and Eventide all housed in a 5U chassis. All on stage signal inputs and outputs were routed through Yamaha RPio622 stage boxes with all signal flow within the Rivage system done via the proprietary TWINLANe configuration. For added peace of mind, all Rivage consoles, mix engines and I/O boxes include integrated, dual redundant power supplies to ensure stable power during any mission critical deployment.
“While the control surfaces may have gotten a little smaller, make no mistake these are Rivage consoles through and through,” states Kevin Kimmel, systems application engineer for Rivage Series Digital Mixing Systems. “Utilizing the same mix engines, I/O and other features found on their bigger brothers, PM3 and PM5 offer the same Rivage performance at a more affordable price point.”
For more information on Yamaha Rivage Series Digital Mixing Systems, visit https://usa.yamaha.com/products/proaudio/mixers/rivage_pm/index.html.
