Venus Bouzoukia Upgrades With Soundcraft Si3

Venus Vareladika, the Larnaca-based live ‘Bouzoukia’ nightclub, has installed a new Soundcraft Si3 digital console to mix the venue’s resident ‘covers’ band. This installation is one of a number of sales to installation and rental companies involving Soundcraft’s digital platform, reported recently by ALA Equipment Co. Ltd., Harman Professional’s territorial distributors.

The house band at the 500-seat Venus, which is situated on the beach near Larnaca Airport, plays traditional folk tunes and pop classics and the line-up comprises of drums, guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion and of course bouzouki.

The bustling venue operates 4 nights a week, therefore sound engineer Jim Demetri requires a reliable and durable mixing desk, accustomed to working long duty cycles.

Demetri contacted ALA Equipment Co. Ltd. and was immediately impressed by the extremely analog sounding characteristics of the Si3. “The pre amps are superb, with great headroom, while the EQ is very musical and doesn’t suffer the clinical digital sound of other desks that I have worked with," comments Demetri. “All in all, this is a great sounding board.”

Demetri believes that any professional sound engineer with a background in analog will be able to work with ease on the Si3 with a minimum learning curve. “It looks as though it has been designed with analog engineers in mind,” Demetri states. “It’s also a very ergonomic desk with a nice, clean working surface, which provides for quick operation.”

Demetri’s colleague, Andrea Piemonti, MD of ALA Equipment Co. Ltd. claims Venus has received great support from the Si3. “The user interface played a large part in our choice of desk,” the sound engineer admits. “Being situated on a small island, you need the best support possible.”

The performers at Venus each have a personal monitor system, with 6 singers running with AKG IVM 4 UHF wireless in-ear monitoring system with integrated dbx digital signal processing. The entire monitor system is mixed from the Si3 and each input requires a separate feed via an aux buss, including running the onboard 4 Lexicons and stereo JBL side fills as well as back up monitors in the front. “There would be no chance of doing that with a single analog console,” adds Demetri.

In addition to Venus, Andrea Piemonti reports further sales of the Si3 to Nicosia-based rental company, Red Sound. In the same city, he has also supplied V&M Electronics with a Soundcraft Vi6 and Kallipoleos with a Vi4. “We are currently dominating the market with Soundcraft digital consoles on the island,” Piemonti says. “In addition to rental companies, we are also talking to many prospective installation customers.”