Background and context
The Sacramento Mandarins, a long-established drum and bugle corps founded in 1963, compete at the highest levels of Drum Corps International (DCI). Their productions place unusual demands on sound reinforcement, with more than 100 performers moving across a full football field and multiple loudspeaker positions spread around the performance area.
Since 2023, audio engineer Griffin Law has led the corps’ sound team, overseeing live engineering and managing production staff. Law’s background spans church audio, percussion studies and recording, but the scale and mobility of a drum corps show presented new technical challenges compared with typical stage-based events.
Law and the Mandarins needed a mixing platform that could handle extensive I/O, distributed loudspeaker zones and time-aligned audio for constantly moving musicians, while remaining teachable to a rotating seasonal crew.
Key announcement
To address these requirements, the Mandarins adopted Allen & Heath’s SQ digital mixing console as their primary desk, later expanding the system with a CQ-20B mixer used as a dedicated submixer for keyboard percussion. The CQ-20B feeds multiple stereo outputs into the SQ and is controlled wirelessly via tablet, freeing the team to work from different positions around the field.
Law cites the SQ’s routing and interface design as central to the decision. The matrix-style patching view allows engineers to see input and output relationships in an X/Y grid, which he finds faster to understand and easier to train others on than menu-heavy alternatives.
The Mandarins use the console in a non-traditional configuration. Rather than relying on a single main stereo PA feed, the team primarily uses post-fader aux buses to drive separate sets of speakers across the field, with the main layer functioning as a master control for those sends. Customizable fader banks help the crew quickly access critical channels during dynamic moments in the show.
SoftKeys and Soft Rotaries on the SQ are programmed for production communication, enabling Law to talk directly to ensemble coordinators and synthesizer performers via stageboxes positioned near them. This supports real-time coordination as the corps moves through complex formations.
Industry impact
The Mandarins’ workflow highlights several trends relevant to event and touring professionals working in large, distributed spaces. Wireless coordination is a major factor: with more than 20 groups often sharing RF spectrum at competitions, Law’s team must complete careful frequency planning before any performance.
Field movement adds another layer of complexity. Unlike a singer moving a few metres on a conventional stage, brass and other instrumentalists may travel more than 30 metres during a single passage. To keep the sound coherent for spectators, Law relies on the SQ’s per-input and per-output delay capabilities, applying time alignment across microphones and speaker stacks placed around the venue.
The corps’ mix also combines multiple acoustic and electronic sources. Dozens of brass players, field microphones and amplified synthesizers must be balanced so that the audience hears a cohesive representation of what is happening on the field. Low-frequency support, including miked tubas, is used to keep the brass section’s tonal balance consistent as they move.
To manage these shifts, the team programs around 30 scenes into the SQ for a typical 12-minute show. Scene recalls adjust which microphones are active, their levels, and how sources are distributed across the various speaker zones, aligned with the performers’ choreography.
Why this matters
For event technology professionals, the Mandarins’ use case demonstrates how modern digital consoles can function as both mixing engines and show-control hubs in challenging environments. Features such as flexible bus structures, granular delay on inputs and outputs, and user-configurable controls are being pushed beyond traditional front-of-house workflows.
The approach also underscores the growing importance of distributed PA, RF strategy and programmable scenes in outdoor and non-traditional venues, where audience experience depends on accurate time alignment and consistent coverage over large areas.
Allen & Heath positions the SQ and CQ ranges as scalable solutions for live production; further details on the consoles’ feature sets are available on the company’s official site at allen-heath.com.
During competitions, Law typically mixes from the field while another team member monitors from the press box and communicates via RF microphone directly to his headphones. This dual-perspective method allows the crew to make venue-specific adjustments in real time, a practice that may be increasingly relevant as more productions seek to translate intricate, mobile performances into clear, intelligible sound for audiences in large-format spaces.