Koch Sound Cooks Up Audio in Alaska

Kenai, Alaska (September 14, 2026)—Kenai, Alaska is likely best known for its fishing (the largest king salmon ever caught—over 97 pounds—was reeled in there), and that makes it a must-see destination for fishing tourism. Where there’s tourism, there’s entertainment and Kenai-based Koch Sound provides audio for events throughout the region, ranging from outdoor festivals to EDM performances to regional touring productions.

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Led by owner Alex Koch (pronounced “cook”), the company’s audio offerings center around multiple Allen & Heath consoles, chosen to match different use cases, be they local community events or large fests.

The company’s inventory includes an Avantis as well as a CQ-18T, often opting for the latter due to its compact footprint and streamlined workflow, allowing Koch to move quickly. “It’s just simple, it’s small,” he says. “I don’t have to have a dedicated front of house booth out front with a tent because I just mix on my iPad.”

While he’s used it for local graduation ceremonies, the CQ-18T has also been pressed into service for EDM gigs, such as bass artist DJ Buku, who only required a simple three channel set up when he recently played Alice’s Champagne Palace, pounding the crowd with heavy 140 BPM bass beats.

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The Avantis doesn’t sit home idle, however; during this year’s Homer HarborFest, a music fest two hours away in the self-proclaimed “Halibut fishing capital of the world,” Koch provided his Avantis to the Anchorage-based sound company hired to supply the P.A., although they had never mixed on the platform before. Having completed the Allen & Heath certification training program years earlier, Koch quickly taught the other company about the desk and reports, “[the engineer] gave in and gave it a shot…and yeah, it worked great.”