News & Press

Renowned front-of-house engineer Sean “Sully” Sullivan selects Avid’s flagship live sound system to deliver exceptional sound quality for “The Getaway” World Tour

Avid recently announced that front-of-house engineer, Sean “Sully” Sullivan, has chosen its flagship live sound system, Avid VENUE™ | S6L, to mix front of house for the Red Hot Chili Peppers The Getaway World Tour. Powered by the MediaCentral^® Platform, the most open, tightly integrated, and efficient platform designed for media, Avid VENUE | S6L gives Sully the unrivaled flexibility and performance to meet the demands of one of the biggest tours of the year.

Until now, the Chili Peppers’ tours have been mixed on an analog console, but with the help of sound provider Rat Sound, Sully recently transitioned to the Avid digital live sound system, part of Avid’s comprehensive tools and workflow solutions to create, distribute and optimize media. A second S6L system is used backstage by recording engineer Jason Gossman, who mixes the recordings the next day before uploading them to the band’s website to be sold as MP3s.

“We can achieve much better results with digital due to the options the architecture provides—you have endless possibilities,” said Sully, who mixes for some of the world’s biggest artists, including Rihanna and the Beck. “My first time hearing the full band was in front of a crowd. The house lights went off and it was time to go. It’s not how I typically like it to go, but since they sent me recordings of shows, the power of S6L’s Virtual Soundcheck made it easy. For me, Virtual Soundcheck is the biggest game-changing event in live sound since the beginning—it’s that big of a deal.”

Sully and Gossman have both been longtime users of Avid VENUE live systems, and immediately appreciated Avid VENUE | S6L’s new preamp design and extended headroom. Sully shared, “Not to say that the Profiles were bad, but the S6Ls are obviously better. That’s where I think the biggest difference is. Avid has upped the game as far as the input quality goes.”

“Every year, our distinguished live sound customers rely on Avid’s powerful tools and workflow solutions to tackle the biggest tours around the world,” said Jeff Rosica, President at Avid. “With Avid VENUE | S6L’s versatility, unmatched integration with Avid Pro Tools^®, and cutting-edge capabilities, Sully can provide stellar sound for the Red Hot Chili Peppers tour. That’s why it’s the top choice for the industry’s best live sound engineers.”

Avid VENUE | S6L is a fully modular, flexible live sound mixing system that delivers best-in-class functionality for a range of live sound mixing applications, including front-of-house, monitor, broadcast, theater, and more. Offering unprecedented processing capabilities—with over 300 processing channels—S6L delivers unrelenting performance and reliability through its advanced engine design, backed up by modern touchscreen workflows and the scalability to easily handle large, complex tours and events. Like all Avid VENUE systems, S6L provides seamless Pro Tools integration and on-board industry-standard plug-ins, with higher track counts and more processing power than ever before. With a comprehensive array of network and I/O offerings, users can easily configure the system to meet the demands of any type of show.