Patch Productions Director, Toby Chevis, is a man on a mission to deliver the very finest outdoor events and theatrical sound possible. He started his rental company journey early in life, building a freelance career from the age of just 14. His first DiGiCo console was the SD8, which enabled him to supply the Cheltenham Jazz festival. He now supplies every Cheltenham Festival and, with his latest purchase of a pair of brand-new Quantum 326s, one with the T software installed, he is supplying an increasing number of theatrical and touring shows too.
“As a kid, I was always into music and when I started freelancing, I bought my own kit. I started with microphones, small PAs and it grew from there,” he recalls. “Buying that first DiGiCo SD8 was a big step, but the work followed once I had it. The company officially started in 2018, but I’ve been doing gigs as Patch since I started out.”
As a freelancer, Chevis was able to refine his skills, working out which areas of the industry most appealed. For him, theatre and live events had the biggest draw, so the company has focussed on expanding into those key areas, delivering the audio for theatrical touring shows. The size and complexity of these shows is continually growing, increasing the amount of prep-work required. Chevis now finds that he is adapting his working model and the size of his consoles.
“We custom build all our racks, and we’re finding that jobs are becoming very time critical, so prep is more important than ever,” he continues. “The touring model of one or two days in a venue, where you have to be in and working within two hours, seems to be a big chunk of our work. Speed like that requires very careful preparation.”
The purchase of a Quantum 326T has reinforced the upward trajectory for Patch Productions. Packing 156 input channels, with 72 busses and a 36 x 36 matrix into a compact 1.1m frame allows Chevis to remain nimble during speedy load ins, but also cater for larger shows that are being broadcast.
The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is an example of this, with many touring acts bringing their own consoles, but more relying on Patch’s pair of Quantum 326, one on stage and one at the front of house position.
“The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is another busy show with acts like Lulu, Beverley Knight and Roger Daltrey all coming through with their own consoles,” Chevis explains. “We needed compact but capable consoles at front of house and monitors because space was at a premium, but we could still serve acts like Macy Gray, Lisa Stansfield and the Buena Vista All Stars, who all used our consoles.”
DiGiCo’s T software opens up the console’s flexibility with features designed specifically for theatre shows. The Advanced Auto-Update Cue system ensures each channel only updates as required when a scene is changed, meaning that cast and musicians can follow different parameters, while the Aliases and Players function unlocks even greater flexibility for covers and costume changes. For Chevis, this expanded usability has delivered another opportunity, in the form of the 30th anniversary concert performance of Songs for a New World, written and composed by Jason Robert Brown at the Eventim Apollo Theatre in London.
“We have done some exciting gigs, but the Songs for a New World performances were another level. We rolled through the doors at 7am and were sound checking by 10am,” he recalls. “It’s fun. We love a musical, especially with an orchestra, it’s what we do. The T software is really useful for scene-based shows like this, especially when there is timecode. It is packed with great features.”
Patch Productions continues to grow and DiGiCo will be there to support Chevis’s journey because, as he concludes, DiGiCo products do exactly what he needs and more, with no compromises.
“For a long time, we tried to replicate what DiGiCo does without actually buying one, but that had varying levels of success!” says Chevis. “It’s great to get a pair of brand-new Quantum 326s, it raises the bar for the company as a whole. Getting in early meant that new clients found us as a result. We supplied the Libertines for their Glastonbury rehearsals because they would be using a Q326 for monitors on site. They used ours for a few days so they could make their show file and take it with them. They found us because we had the Quantum 326s in stock. Choosing DiGiCo has been a catalyst for growth in the company, we’ve made a big investment, especially for the theatre side of the business, and the work has followed.”
