PSNE September 2015 Digital by Future PLC

September 2015

www.psneurope.com

Vive la révolution! The French National Orchestra and an Optocore ring help Bastille Day go with a bang P38 P20

P36

P44

LIKE A ROLLING STONE

LEARNING TO FLY

EYE OF THE STORM

RECORDING KEEF’S FIRST SOLO ALBUM IN 23 YEARS

ROCKIN’ 1000 AND THE ART OF IMPRESSING DAVE GROHL

CHLORINE-PROOF KIT AT WET AND WILD PLOPSAQUA

! ! !

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Welcome

PSNEUROPE Editor Dave Robinson drobinson@nbmedia.com

Account manager Rian Zoll-Khan rzoll-khan@nbmedia.com

Deputy editor Jon Chapple jchapple@nbmedia.com

Commercial director Darrell Carter dcarter@nbmedia.com

Managing editor Jo Ruddock jruddock@nbmedia.com

Head of design Jat Garcha jgarcha@nbmedia.com

Advertising manager Ryan O’Donnell rodonnell@nbmedia.com

Production executive Jason Dowie jdowie@nbmedia.com

Contributors: Michael Burns, Mike Clark, David Davies, Mark Hallinger, Kevin Hilton, Marc Maes, John Stadius, Wes Maebe, Phil Ward, Dave Wiggins

PSNEurope NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18–26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN Editorial: +44 20 7354 6002 Sales: +44 20 7354 6000 Press releases to: ukpressreleases@nbmedia.com Circulation and subscription: Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the publisher’s discretion, unless specifically guaranteed within the terms of the subscription offer. NewBay Media may pass suitable reader addresses to other relevant suppliers. If you do not wish to receive sales information from other companies, please write to Circulations and Subscriptions, NewBay Media, Curwood CMS Ltd, The Barn, Abbey Mews, Robertsbridge TN32 5AD

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Cover image: Bastille Day 2015 concert, Paris

P3 SEPTEMBER 2015

DAVE ROBINSON Editor

@PSNEurope

he last two weeks of this issue’s production cycle has found me on jury service in Croydon, that Shrangri-La of a town south of London. In between stints of courtroom theatrics (which in reality has been an awful lot of slouching around, looking at Buzzfeed and waiting for my name to be called – oh yeah, and writing this), I’ve made time to explore the locale. That’s when I stumbled upon the somewhat tired-looking massif of the Fairfield Halls (see p57), the hallowed venue where Flood and Mel Wesson saw Tangerine Dream play in the ’70s, a gig which was hugely influential on their work as Node, as you may have read about in our April edition. But while I’ve been doing my civic duty, PSNEurope’s own panel of expert judges from across the industry have been busy selecting the winners for this month’s third Pro Sound Awards, at the Ministry of Sound in the tropic of Elephant & Castle. Having spent an evening totalling up the votes I can tell you, it’s been pretty close in a couple of the categories: that’s where – literally – every vote has counted. In my daydreaming here in the Jury Assembly Room, I realised I’ve already seen some solid potential entrants for the Awards in 2016: Goldie’s peerlees and frenetic performance of Timeless at the RFH; the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble’s charming the Barbican audience with a night of ‘synth’s greatest hits’; the stunning clarity of the Rising stage at Roskilde, featuring a Meyer Sound LEOPARD rig; Róisín Murphy and her band and tearing up the techno manual at Wilderness; and ZZ Top still ruling the roost with an Electro-Voice X-Line Advance and a lifetime of experience (they’ve been around as long as me!) in Straubing. I hope some of these make next year’s final foursome. Meanwhile, of course, that Node gig? That’s on this year’s list… See you at the Ministry on 24 September!

www.psneurope.com

P4 SEPTEMBER 2015

Contents

In this issue... P42 CINECITTÀ WORLD CINEMA SOUND WITH A DIFFERENCE

P6 139th AES CONVENTION HEADSETS ON! FOCUS ON VR AS AES RETURNS TO NEW YORK

P52 SOUND FOR STADIUMS HOW AUDIO CONSIDERATIONS ARE SHAPING THE VASTEST OF VENUES

Studio 20

Crosseyed Talk: The return of Keith Richards

Broadcast

P32 CODA AUDIO AiRAY

Reaching Nirvana over IP?

THE INNOVATIVE LINE ARRAY THAT’S ABOUT MORE THAN THE SOUND

Live Business 6 7 8 10 12 14 18

Show preview: AES 139 SSE and Sound Image’s special relationship Pro Sound Awards: Lifetime achievement winner Vocal channel: David Wiggins and Wes Maebe Movers and shakers PSNTraining The strategic position: John Stadius, DiGiCo

Technology 16 24 28 52

New products Show preview: IBC Feature: Broadcast consoles Feature: Stadiums

32 36 38 40

Coda AiRAY: Not just a placebo Learning to ﬂy with viral sensations Rockin’ 1000 Cover story: A networking revolution for Bastille Day Outline’s GTO C-12: It’s a Corker

Installation 42 44 48 50

On the red carpet at Cinecittà World RH braves the chlorine at Plopsaqua A deep dish of KV2 for Chicago in Stuttgart Symetrix ﬁlls Kaiser Bill’s hollow tooth

Back pages 57 58

Hither & dither Backtalk: Morten Büchert, Roskilde

www.psneurope.com

ANDREW DUBOWSKI / SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY

“The more natural the sound, the more perfect the ampliﬁcation. LEOPARD’s sound is so natural, it fools me into thinking the sound is not really ampliﬁed, even though I know it is. That feels like magic.” Andrew Dubowski, Director of Operations

LEOPARD AND 900-LFC THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE LEO FAMILY Read the full interview at meyersound.com/sfsymphony

Show preview

SEPTEMBER 2015

Calm before the storm: New York’s Javits Center as it won’t appear in November

United States

Back to the Big Apple

Virtual reality, audio forensics and advice on how not to run a recording session are among the highlights at the AES’s 139th Convention in New York City

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culus chief scientist Michael Abrash, known for his work in high-end graphics, performance programming and virtual reality, will kick off the 139th AES International Convention in New York City on Thursday 29 October with his keynote speech, entitled Virtual Reality, Audio and the Future. “Michael’s address is a great opportunity to bring awareness of VR to the audio community,” says AES 139 co-chairman Jim Anderson. “In the future, audio will contribute to this field in ways that we can only presently imagine.” Oculus’s Rift headset, which the AES says is “poised to transform gaming, storytelling, film and much more”, can be paired with an immersive audio feed to simulate a true virtual-reality world. At last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (see PSNEurope July 2014) a Rift and four-capsule Soundfield microphone array deployed by BBC R&D gave viewers the sensation of “being transported inside the stadium and being part of the crowd”. Returning to the convention for a second year is the Live Sound Expo (LSE), held in association with PSNEurope’s sister magazine,

www.psneurope.com/business

Oculus’s Michael Abrash, keynote speaker

US-based Pro Sound News, which offers expert advice to the live sound engineers who make up 25 per cent of AES Convention attendees. With an emphasis on practical applications – from touring and theatre sound to installed sound and houses of worship – the LSE will address topics including the changing state of wireless audio; virtual soundchecks and networking; and console and microphone design and use. The second Live Sound Expo will be broken up topically across the convention’s three days into a ‘Broadway day’, ‘house of worship sound/ﬁxed install day’ and ‘tour sound day’, each with dedicated presentation and panel programmes. Complementing the Live Sound Expo is the ever-popular Project Studio Expo (PSE). Presented in association with Sound on Sound magazine and sponsors Genelec, Neumann and Prism Sound, the PSE offers attendees the chance to connect with their peers and get hands-on experience with the latest tools and techniques in audio engineering and production. Topics covered include ‘making the most of your studio purchasing budget’, ‘the ﬁve most common recording mistakes’, ‘personal networking for the audio professional’

P7 SEPTEMBER 2015

and ‘building and developing a career’, and Prism will present its Mic to Monitor workshop series, which aims to “dispel the many myths surrounding the recording process” (see PSNTraining, PSNEurope August 2015). AES 139 is also slated to host “the most indepth technical programme of the year for audio professionals” in the form of four days of workshops, tutorials, paper sessions, career development events and more covering recording and production, live sound, broadcast and streaming, mixing and mastering, game audio and systems integration. Research papers this year will tackle forensic audio, cinema sound, sound reinforcement and

spatial audio, while there will be tutorials on interactive music, microphone techniques, AES67 interoperability, intellectual property and the impressively speciﬁc ‘low-frequency behaviour in small high-accuracy listening environments’. Mark Frink, a veteran live sound engineer, writer and Live Sound Expo host, says: “AES in New York was where I introduced a live sound loudspeaker networking users group in 1987 at the 83rd Convention, and it has always been a destination for professional live sound. [The AES Convention] is the only pro-audio trade show to address standards and professional papers, while showcasing demo rooms and new products,”

“This year’s AES Convention programme is set to be one of the largest and most in-depth in recent years,” adds Jim Anderson. “The committee has put together a very timely and important set of presentations for our return to New York City with the hope of reaching every attendee on a level that inspires and enlightens them. Once again, our convention will serve as the hub of professional audio ideas and innovations for the international community.” The 139th Audio Engineering Society Convention will take place on 29 October–1 November at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. www.aes.org

United Kingdom/United States

SSE, Sound Image form transatlantic alliance By Dave Robinson

A hire giants SSE Audio Group in the UK and California-based Sound Image have announced their collaboration in a transatlantic joint venture. Dubbed the United Audio Companies (UAC), the agreement is designed to provide all the resources required, including “a common touring infrastructure and around-the-clock support”, for touring clients working on either side of the Atlantic. “It’s not just a US company operating via an EU satellite office or vice versa in the US,” explains SSE Audio Group MD John Penn. “It’s two full-service national PA companies with a full complement of staff, service facilities, vehicles, production managers and their long-developed support networks that are made available to the touring production – in addition to the equipment inventory and crew.

Mike Sprague, director of touring, Sound Image; John Penn, MD, SSE; Dave Shadoan, president, Sound Image; Jesse Adamson, business development, Sound Image; Yan Stile, hire director, SSE; Dan Bennett, project manager, SSE

“It means that when a tour hits a snag, SSE in Europe or Sound Image in the States are far more likely to resolve the issue quickly.” Each of the partnering companies has introduced common technologies to facilitate the transition between continents: for instance,

www.psneurope.com/business

SSE has added a JBL VTX system to its rental stock (which is principally L-Acoustics kit). All productions will have additional local contacts assigned to assist planning and coordination and reduce down time. www.uac.global

P8 SEPTEMBER 2015

Pro Sound Awards

The empress crowned Sponsors and shortlists and winners, oh my!

RISING STARS

olette Barber, Abbey Road Studios’ long-serving studio manager, will receive the lifetime achievement award at the Pro Sound Awards on 24 September. Barber, who announced her retirement after 36 years at the end of June, joined Abbey Road in 1979 as an accounts temp and rose through the ranks to become the ‘studio empress of London’ at the world-famous recording facility. She was made a fellow of the Association of Professional Recording Services in November. “I am extremely grateful to even be considered for this award and would be honoured to accept it on behalf of everybody at Abbey Road Studios, who work so hard to make it, in my opinion, the best recording studio in the world,” Barber says. “I have spent an amazing 36 years at Abbey Road, and, although I am retiring early next year, I am very excited about its future, which includes the creation of new studios and ﬁlm facilities. I will miss not being a part of it but I am very proud to have even been a part of its incredible history.” Previous Pro Sound Awards lifetime achievers include Grammy-winning recording engineer and Meyer Sound/ Constellation consultant John Pellowe and veteran acoustician Andy Munro. As the event approaches, PSNEurope is also delighted to announce that global post-production/creative services provider Technicolor will make its Pro Sound Awards debut as photobooth sponsor. Technicolor’s sound division, Technicolor Sound Services, offers sound design for feature ﬁlms, television

programmes, video games, DVDs and other digital media from state-of-the-art facilities in London, Toronto, Hollywood, Paris and Bangkok. Technicolor is shortlisted in the best broadcast facility category (for its facility in Lexington, Soho), as well as for best sound in postproduction. Recognising outstanding achievement in professional audio, PSNEurope’s Pro Sound Awards return to the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London for the third time on Thursday 24 September. Focusrite (which sponsored February’s PSNPresents event at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho), Martin Audio and Soundcraft are also supporting the event, sponsoring the studio category, the drinks reception and the rising star award (see box), respectively. A range of other sponsorship opportunities – from headline sponsor to category, red-carpet and afterparty sponsorship – are also available; contact PSNEurope ad manager Ryan O’Donnell (rodonnell@nbmedia.com) or account manager Rian Zoll-Khan (rzoll-khan@nbmedia. com) for more details. For ticket information, email Georgia Blake at gblake@nbmedia.com. www.prosoundawards.com www.technicolor.com/london Tickets are available now for £49, which includes drinks reception, food, the awards and the afterparty. And a splendid social occasion! More information at www.prosoundawards.com

Sponsored by

www.prosoundawards.com

PSNEurope sister title Audio Media International revealed its 10-person shortlist of up-and-coming pro-audio ‘rising stars’ last month. As in 2014, the winner of the award – sponsored again by Soundcraft – will receive their trophy from AMI editor Adam Savage on the night.

The ﬁnalists are: Stuart Allen-Hynd Transfer engineer, Jungle Studios Dean Cross Head technician, Bucks Students’ Union Andy Egerton Monitor engineer (Mumford & Sons, The Maccabees) Stanley Gabriel Production director, Spitﬁre Audio, and composer/ programmer/engineer Steve Goodison Engineer/producer, Old Pig Farm studios, Sheffield Jonas Andreas Jensen Sound designer, Sony Creative Services Group Riley MacIntyre Assistant engineer, The Church Studios Zoe Martin FOH and monitor engineer (The Radiophonic Workshop), teacher at BIMM Brighton Eric Milos Owner, Clear Lake Recording Studios, North Hollywood Sam Turner Freelance recording/mixing engineer, SoundQuake

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P10 SEPTEMBER 2015

Vocal channel

Our greatest challenge…

T DAVE WIGGINS is a freelance marketeer and pro-audio pundit

he pithily accurate comments of Brit Row MD Bryan Grant on how audio is undervalued in last month’s PSNLive supplement reactivated some dormant thoughts of my own. I have felt for many years that the single greatest challenge facing the modern live sound industry is that audio – even great audio – is taken almost entirely for granted. Outside of our little world there is virtually no understanding of what it takes to ﬁll a space with powerful, controlled and intelligible sound. There is not the slightest grasp of any of the underlying technologies nor the skills of our practitioners, and this manifests itself in a total lack of how do they do that? – the fact that, as just one example, a festivalgoer can rock up to some remote off-thegrid location and enjoy fabulous audio miles from any utilities is not considered in any way remarkable.

It’s at least partly our own fault. The rugged yet modest pragmatism on which the industry prides itself means that jobs just get done with the absolute minimum of drama – no matter where or when or under what conditions, the show will go on. The live sound industry is ﬁlled with people who are totally focussed on doing whatever it takes to make sure that it all happens, and that is a truly remarkable yet brutally undersold thing. On top of this, we are guilty of creating something of a closed shop. Historically the industry did not give up its knowledge and secrets easily, though the doors are much more open than previously with many more avenues of entry available to younger people looking to make a career in live sound. Further, and especially in recent years, we are obliged to compete with visible technologies that make a greater immediate impact on the senses. Lights,

lasers, SFX and video are now simply extraordinary, forming hugely important parts of many larger shows, and their ability to dazzle and impress, even if only ﬂeetingly, always seems to make a bigger impact on our punters. But, the central fact remains, no audio equals no show – no exceptions. Until there is a much greater understanding of this absolute value, our profession will continue to be regarded as the poor production relation. It’s in all our interests to get this done, and in my view there is no one better placed to lead this vital awarenessraising exercise than our trade associations. In much the same way that BEIRG has done an amazing job of ﬁghting our corner for radio frequency space, could PLASA, the PSA and perhaps others lead the charge? As SSE boss John Penn once wisely said to me, “No one goes home whistling the lights...”

What about the artwork?

P WES MAEBE is a freelance recording, mixing and mastering engineer and a board director of the APRS

lenty of us remember sitting in front of the stereo, listening to some killer records and reading through all that information on the LP sleeve. We knew the record label, the publisher, who guested on the recordings, where the music was recorded, who mixed it, who mastered it all, what the lyrics were (if we could ﬁgure out what on earth they were singing about)… Man, what an amazing amount of real-estate for the artwork! Cassette tape inlays brought that acreage down originally, but you still had those cool accordion-style fold-outs containing all the info. The early ’80s introduced the compact disc; however, we could still ﬁnd out everything we needed about our favourite music. Now, in the current musical environment of streaming, we’re not only being deprived of sonic quality, but none of that ‘cool’ information is available for us to peruse. On top of that, we’re left with a pitiful inchand-a-half of artwork!

That brings us to the question: What happened to our credits? Months and sometimes years go into making a record. The musicians, the songwriters, the engineers, the producers, the studio personnel, the backline techs, the publishers, the management – all part of the team that ensures you as the consumer gets the most satisfaction out of your purchase. I do realise I’m in danger of sounding like an old-timer, daydreaming about the ‘good old days’, but I vividly remember my dad waking me up every day to go to school with Time on side one of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. The quality of the sound and the music just drew me in. Even at that early age, I had to know more. Who played it, who recorded it and who was responsible for that mesmerising album artwork. Needless to say, this all leaves me wondering where we stand in today’s musical fast-ood land: not just artwork wise, but more importantly with giving

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credit where credit is due. Thanks to the hard work of several organisations, especially the Grammy P&E Wing and the MPG, we’re well on the way to standardising certain sections of the metadata that is attached to musical works. The ultimate goal will be that all the credit- and royalty-based information is attached and embedded in the ﬁles. And, of course, for the music creators, labels, graphic designers and software developers to get together to ensure that all this information translates cross-platform and is collated in a database accessible to the collection agencies in order to guarantee accurate royalty payments. And since we’re talking about software developers, let’s ﬁnd a funky way to have artwork ‘pop up’, give you the option to look through lyrics and credits information and access links to websites, social media and extra content. There are hints of this showing up on the grid, but we need standardisation. Let’s keep the dialogue going.

When you need to hear a pin drop...

SI Centrum Palladium, Stuttgart, Germany

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Theatre applications are particularly demanding, the quietest of sounds are often crucially important to the show. Similarly Orchestral and Jazz performances have huge variations in levels. The KV2 Audio ESR Series has been designed to deliver an impressive full range response with extraordinary dynamic range. Every aspect of an ESR system is aimed at delivering total accuracy and audio quality.

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Test the ESR Series in your performance space today - you will be able to hear a pin drop...

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P12 SEPTEMBER 2015

Movers and shakers

Sennheiser UK serious about SI Two new sales managers boost systems integration team

ennheiser has made two new appointments to its UK sales force. Mark Haigh (left), who most recently spent 13 years at Bose, and Kevin Gwyther-Brown, who was head of sales at Enlightened Lighting, both join Sennheiser UK’s systems integration (SI) team as channel sales managers. Haigh will take on responsibility for the company’s

SI dealers in the Midlands and north of England and Gwyther-Brown the south and south-west of the UK. “Mark and Kevin are great additions to the Sennheiser UK team,” says Simon Holley, sales director, pro AV and systems integration, at Sennheiser UK. “We are delighted to welcome them on board and are looking forward to working together on some exciting new projects.” www.sennheiser.co.uk

DEALER NETWORK

Avid has appointed Paula E. Boggs to its board of directors. Boggs is a former lawyer for Starbucks, a voting member of the US National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and songwriter/lead vocalist with the Paula Boggs Band. www.avid.com

Loud Technologies, the parent company of Mackie, EAW and Martin Audio, has announced the appointment of Larry Pendergrass to the position of senior vicepresident of engineering of its music gear group. www.loudtechinc.com

Peter Robberechts has joined Riedel Communications as sales manager for Belgium from Outside Broadcast’s Mediasense division. He was previously COO of production company Talent & Vision. www.riedel.net

Lawo has appointed Robert Charles ‘Chas’ Rowden to head up its global strategic sales. Rowden, who has 30 years of experience in senior sales roles in broadcast and production, was previously senior sales manager, EMEA, for Calrec Audio. www.lawo.com

Neumann&Müller Event Technology has named Stephan Hartmann as the third member its executive management team, alongside Prof. Eberhard Müller and Alexander Ostermaier. Hartmann joined Neumann&Müller in 1981. www.neumannmueller.com

TSL Systems has appointed Roger Henderson to the role of CEO. He joins TSL Systems from Calrec Audio, where he spent six years as managing director. He has also worked at Trilogy Communications, Chyron Corporation and Ascent Media. www.tsl.co.uk

www.psneurope.com/business

Aimline, a German manufacturer of digital steerable loudspeaker columns, has announced that Trius will become a distributor in Germany. Aimline, which debuted at ISE in February, is led by a team of veteran pro-audio professionals including Tobias Schulte (ex-Tannoy and Turbosound), Nigel Miller (Tannoy and Tascam) and Claus Behrens (Lab.gruppen, TC Group). www.aimline-audio.com www.trius-audio.de Loud Technologies has named V Hypersound & Light as its new distributor in Cyprus for its Mackie and Ampeg brands. “It is both an honour and a privilege to represent Mackie and Ampeg in Cyprus,” says Hypersound’s founder, Vassos Mouzouras.“We strongly believe that we share the same values [and] dedication to quality, service and innovation, and we look forward to a long-lasting, fruitful and mutually beneﬁcial relationship.” www.loudtechinc.com www.hypersound.com.cy Michael Kinzel, a pro-audio industry veteran who has held senior roles at beyerdynamic and Kling & Freitag, has founded his own company, Kinzel AVL, which will serve as a Europe-wide sales network and logistics, marketing, communication and after-sales service for Chinese manufacturer Tendzone. www.tendzone.com www.kinzel-avl.com (coming soon)

P14 SEPTEMBER 2015

Ampco Flashlight dLivers the goods

BY JON CHAPPLE

5 September–19 December Britannia Row: Live sound intermediate course Twickenham, UK www.britanniarow.com/courses

18–20 September International Conference on Spatial Audio Graz, Austria www.tonmeister.de

29 September InstallFutures London, UK www.installfutures.com

20 October Sennheiser: Wireless mics and monitoring essentials Leighton Buzzard, UK portal.sennheiser.co.uk/training/course/locale/en/no/21 Ampco Flashlight Sales, a division of Utrecht-based sales and rental giant Ampco Flashlight Group, took Allen & Heath’s new dLive digital mixing desk, launched in June, on a ‘demo tour’ throughout the Netherlands in August. The demonstrations were hosted by TM Audio’s Martijn Verkerk, who visited Utrecht, Assen, Leeuwarden, Bergen op Zoom and Limbourg with the new console, which had been two years in development and offers twice the speed and power of its predecessor, the iLive. (TM Audio has been part of the Ampco Flashlight Group since 2014.) The Allen & Heath dLive features FPGA processing at its core, with an array of control,

expansion and networking options, starting from a base price of €20,000 for a small venue solution to €30,000 for a larger touring system. “It really is the ultimate mixing system, with all the processing tools and power that the most demanding engineers would expect, and the flexibility and networkability to cater for any application,” said A&H senior project manager Nicola Beretta in June. “This is coupled with […] what we believe is the fastest workflow in the industry. dLive is equally at home in fixed installations, such as a house of worship or theatre, as it is at festivals and out touring.” www.ampco-flashlight-sales.nl

Get started with Dante at PSNEurope.com BY JON CHAPPLE Throughout August the PSNEurope website has hosted Getting Started with Dante, an eight-part video series which provides a high-level practical view of Dante audio networking for professionals and novices alike. Part one sees Audinate’s Brad Price show how Dante audio networking is “revolutionising AV with high performance, low installation costs and hundreds of products to choose from”. The remaining installments include a demonstration of a basic Dante audio network in action, and how to use Dante controller, the free audio-network management software from Audinate. Watch part one at www.psneurope.com/danteoverview. www.audinate.com

www.psneurope.com/training

THE ESSENTIALS: NOW HEAR THIS

A guide to verifying audio system performance, written by InfoComm volunteers and industry experts You developed an audio system for a client that took many hours to perfect. You step back, gaze upon your masterpiece and nod in satisfaction. You’re done, right? Not so fast. Before you can turn that system over to the client, you need to verify that its performance meets requirements – and doing so involves more than just the system itself. Not only do you need to test the system, but you should also verify that the project is in compliance with industry norms. How do you do that in an organised and sequential manner? Read the full article at www.psneurope.com/now-hear-this

P16 SEPTEMBER 2015

New products

ROLAND M-5000C

What is it? The latest addition to Roland Pro A/V’s growing line-up of OHRCA (Open High Resolution Control Architecture)-based live mixing consoles.

Details: Measuring under 30” (74cm), the M-5000C offers the features of the M-5000 in a smaller footprint for touring, broadcast, theatre and live performance applications.

And another thing… The M-5000C will make its European debut on HHB Communications’ IBC stand this month. proav.roland.com

BEYERDYNAMIC

K-ARRAY

SYMETRIX

What is it? The “next step in the evolution” of beyerdynamic’s DT 770 PRO studio/monitoring headphones.

What is it? K-array’s loudest portable loudspeaker system.

What is it? Three new products allowing integrators to quickly and easily add extra inputs and outputs to their SymNet DSP systems.

DT 1770 PRO

Details: A triple-layer compound membrane in the DT 1770 PRO reduces unwanted partial vibrations, allowing increased accuracy in the reproduction bass and overtone reproduction. Comfort has also been considered with exchangeable ear cushions covered with soft velour or artiﬁcial leather and a spring-steel headband that is adjustable and equipped with exchangeable padding. And another thing… The included coiled cable and straight cable, which are part of the basic version, are singlesided and securely attached to a lockable Mini XLR connector. www.beyerdynamic.com

KR802

Details: The self-powered, 142dB KR802 features a pair of KMT218 2 x 18” subs each with two channels of 2,500W matched to two KY102s with 4” neodymium speaker elements. The systems eature two channels of Class D ampliﬁcation, housed in the subwoofer. The rear panel provides input for a balanced line signal, a balanced microphone signal with phantom power, and digital signals in AES/EBU protocol, also on an XLR for ease of cabling. And another thing… All DSP functions, including EQ, can be controlled with remote managing software via USB or RS485 on a standard XLR. www.k-array.com

www.psneurope.com

XIN 4, XOUT 4 and XIO 4x4

Details: xIn 4 is an audio input expander for SymNet Dante-scalable systems featuring four mic/line inputs with +48 VDC phantom power, while xOut 4 is, similarly, an output expander. Symetrix xIO 4x4 is an audio input/output expander for SymNet systems sporting four mic/line inputs and four line outputs. And another thing… All three devices are conﬁgured using the newly updated SymNet Composer software, eliminating any requirement for hardware DIP switches, frontpanel menus or third-party software. www.symetrix.co

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P18 SEPTEMBER 2015

The strategic position

Hooray, hooray for FPGA

Since the launch of the ﬁrst of its SD range of digital mixing consoles, DiGiCo’s technical director, John Stadius, and his R&D team have championed the use of FPGA technology over the available alternatives. He explains what sent him down this path – and why he is conﬁdent it’s still the right one for audio mixing

e used Analog Devices SHARC DSPs in our first DiGiCo digital console, the D5 Live, when the company was formed in 2002. We’d been using them since 1996 in the post-production consoles made by Soundtracs, the company bought and built on by DiGiCo, so it was a technology we were very familiar with. It was certainly the right one to continue with at that point, but we were already investigating different processing options and deciding what would be the right thing for DiGiCo’s products in the future. We decided on the use of FPGAs (fieldprogrammable gate array chips), which, combined with our propriety Stealth Digital Processing (DiGiCo’s first use of a single large-scale FPGA for audio processing, and another significant development for us), became the core of the SD range of consoles and continues to be the heart of the audio in our new S21 console. Today there are three technologies commonly used to process audio: DSP, FPGA and, more recently, Intel or similar X86 processors such as the i7. They all do a similar job, so why did DiGiCo choose the FPGA approach over the other two, and how is it still the best approach? I’ve already mentioned that DSP has been around the longest. FPGAs suitable for use as audio processors became available at the start of the 21st

century, around the same time as the first iterations of the i7 style of processor. Over the years, all three technologies have progressed: SHARC DSPs from Analog Devices are now on their fourth generation, and the i7 is currently on its fifth generation, soon to be sixth. While FPGA vendors have progressed (in a similar way in terms of hardware), the tools for compiling the devices have also got more efficient. On its own, DSP and Intel chips are similar in the way they process audio: ie one thing at a time. Using multiple DSPs means a lot of the work can now be done in parallel, in a similar way to FPGA, but the audio engine becomes very complicated and large – 40 DSP chips takes up a lot of space and are often spread over multiple printed circuit boards with interconnections. This can make it less reliable than a single PCB design with one or two chips, such as our Stealth engine. It will also require a lot more power than a single FPGA, creating a lot more heat, which can create other design risks and challenges. So what about the Intel approach? The i7 was designed for desktop PC-type applications, so it doesn’t have the flexible I/O functionality for interfacing to audio devices. The I/O is pretty much limited to PCIe Ethernet and USB, making interfacing to standard (non-network) audio interfaces complex. For example, to create a MADI port, you may need a special PCIe interface from the CPU to a dedicated MADI block. This is expensive and requires a lot of hardware and special driver software. With FPGAs,

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you just connect their pins to a simple buffer chip and you have a MADI I/O. Simplicity in a design like this often means more long-term reliability and a lower latency. The Intel i7 and similar are not easy to scale down as the complexity of their I/O remains for all levels of audio engines. It also has a much higher power consumption than the equivalent FPGA design, which means an active cooling system is normally required, as well as an operating system to make it work, and this can be very expensive to develop time-wise. You could use a third-party OS but, again, that’s an additional cost and complication. In the demands of the live audio world boot time is also an important factor. When you use an FPGA, the device can be up and passing audio in a second or two. This is particularly important after a power cut. X86 processors require the BIOS to boot first, followed by its operating system, before finally allowing the audio to flow. This is simply too long when you need to get up and running fast. What’s more, the FPGA approach requires a single PCB that can sit within the console surface, using the same power supplies, reducing the risk of external connection failure. Our designs have to stand the test of time so our users and clients have time to get a return on their investment. In contrast to this, Intel processors generally have a limited product life cycle; they change models every few years. This

P19 SEPTEMBER 2015

means that a console using them will have to have its hardware frequently updated or risk being left behind. Conversely, despite FPGA devices continuing to evolve, their manufacturers will supply current versions for between 10 and 20 years and they still beneďŹ t from the enhancements to the development tools. Our product upgrade program shows how effective this is, with more features being able to be added over the lifetime of our products. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s often the case that the engine control software in a PC-based console will be running on one of the cores of the CPU in the audio engine. This normally runs on a non-real-time operating system, such as Windows or Linux. If the control software crashes and has to be rebooted, the audio will be lost. The only way around this is to have two processors running separately, again increasing complexity and cost. Designing one processor for audio and application control with no fail-safe is like having all your eggs in one basket. It took us ďŹ ve years to make FPGA work exactly how we wanted it to, but it has so many advantages, including scalability; a very fast boot time, delivering almost instant audio; future-prooďŹ ng, with designs

that can migrate from one generation to another using common design tools and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require an operating system to run; lower latency; low power consumption; and the FPGA audio engine is much simpler to manufacture. So if they are so good, why doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t everyone use them? The simple answer is the initial development time. DiGiCo took around ďŹ ve years to develop its ďŹ rst FPGA-based product. It requires a special skillset to achieve this. Programming in a high level language for X86/i7 processors does get a product to market quicker, but, as weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen, it has disadvantages. One console manufacturer implied recently, when discussing their new X86-based product, that it was simply unfeasible to deliver the number of channels and processing power that a console would require using standard DSP or FPGA. Maybe for them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but Calrec, part of the Audiotonix

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GLASGOW | 20-21 JANUARY, 2016

John Stadius, technical director, DiGiCo

Group, has been doing more than their quoted channel number for years by using a low number of FPGAs in extremely demanding applications. There is no doubt that using FPGAs has allowed us to dramatically expand the capabilities of our entire SD range without making any changes to the basic

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hardware of the product: all upgrades and expansions have been achieved solely through ďŹ rmware and software. This is all down to the use of FPGAs, and is the simple reason why we will continue to use them for the foreseeable future. Â&#x201E; www.digico.biz

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P20 SEPTEMBER 2015

Studio

Photo: Mark Seliger

World

Return of the Human Riff Some much-loved outboard and collaborators old and new were involved in the recording of Keith Richards’ ﬁrst album away from The Rolling Stones for more than two decades, writes David Davies

everal lengthy tours with The Rolling Stones and a best-selling memoir, Life, mean that Keith Richards has hardly been resting on his considerable laurels in recent years. But aside from 2005’s Stones album, A Bigger Bang, and a few fresh tracks on compilations, new studio work featuring the iconic guitarist has been decidedly thin on the ground since the turn of the millennium. That all changes this month with the release of Richards’ third solo album – and first since 1992’s Main Offender – Crosseyed Heart. A hugely enjoyable record that possesses some of the same exuberant energy as Stones landmarks such as Exile on Main St, it took shape in relaxed fashion over three years and finds him reunited with long-term collaborator, drummer/ producer Steve Jordan. “After doing all the book promotion, Keith didn’t feel much like playing and I didn’t think that was right,” says Jordan. “He’s writing all the time so there were plenty of songs for us to work with. As the recording developed it stepped up to two or three days per week, but it had a very low-key start.” Joining them on the adventure was engineer Dave O’Donnell, who has worked with Jordan on several other projects during the last decade. He confirms that the record was built around initial live takes featuring just Richards and Jordan, and observes of the duo that they are “natural musical brothers. Everything they play is great, so getting a track was just a matter of fleshing out the arrangement or the sound.”

Recording Crosseyed Heart with guitarist Waddy Wachtel and Steve Jordan on drums (Photo: J. Rose)

Essence of Keith In keeping with the relaxed mood, recording centred upon two of the team’s favourite New York studios. After early sessions at One East Studios, operations shifted to Studio 1 at Germano Studios – not least because of its Exigy S412G custom four-way monitor system (“really one of my favourites in the world”, says Jordan). To best capture the rootsy, organic sound for which Richards is renowned, it was decided to track to 2” tape via a Studer A827 before continuing overdubs

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and mixing in Pro Tools. An SSL Duality desk was also employed during the sessions, albeit primarily for monitoring. Plenty of Germano Studios’ classic gear was pressed into service, including Neve 1081 and 1084 four-band EQ/mic-pres, as well as Chandler stereo limiters and a Fairchild 670 compressor “which is all over the record”, notes O’Donnell. Recording the primary duo of Richards and Jordan also involved plenty of tried-and-trusted equipment.

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P22 SEPTEMBER 2015

Studio

I realised that what people probably wanted to hear from a new solo record at this point was more Keith, so he ended up playing a lot of different parts

Steve Jordan

Mics selected for Keith included the Shure SM57, beyerdynamic M160, Telefunken ELA M 251E and Royer R-121, while Jordan â&#x20AC;&#x201C;who had two kits set up at any one time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; was recorded with the Coles 4038, Sennheiser MD 421-II and Neumann U47, among other mics. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some songs they would get in a couple of takes. Some took longer, simply to work towards the desired arrangement or to maybe change instruments or the sound. But performance was never a problem,â&#x20AC;? says Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell. With Richards also singing, playing bass on most tracks, and contributing keyboards, Crosseyed Heart

is very much the distilled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;essence of Keithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Recalls Jordan: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I realised that what people probably wanted to hear from a new solo record at this point was more Keith, so he ended up playing a lot of different parts.â&#x20AC;? Nonetheless, there was room for some striking contributions from friends old and new, including Norah Jones, Ivan Neville, keyboardists David Paich and Charles Hodges, and guitarist Waddy Wachtel. On a poignant note, the album also features some of the ďŹ nal recorded performances from the Stonesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; much-loved saxophone sideman, Bobby Keys, who passed away last December.

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Mixing took place at both Germano Studios and another local facility, Brooklyn Recording Studio, before mastering legend Greg Calbi applied the ďŹ nishing touches at Sterling Sound. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really feel that we got what we wanted with this album. Basically, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a fan of rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to love it,â&#x20AC;? says Jordan, who hopes there will be some live shows to support the release if other commitments allow â&#x20AC;&#x201C;which, in his case, include a forthcoming ďŹ fth stint as music director for the Emmy Awards and work on The Verbsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fourth album, Garage Sale, with Meegan Voss. For Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell, the sessions shared much of the sheer love of music-making that characterised one of his other recent projects, James Taylorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Before This World, which he also produced. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The reality is that with musicians of this calibre, you set up and capture what they do as best you can,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Working with Keith and Steve, everyone knows what to play and falls into the mix perfectly. The whole project was just a joy all the way through.â&#x20AC;? Crosseyed Heart is released by Republic Records on 18 September. Â&#x201E;

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P24 SEPTEMBER 2015

Show preview

Netherlands

Catch ’em in the RAI More of hall 8’s ﬁnest, battling to banish those September blues

e hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re reading this it’s September and (what passed for) summer is, sadly, all but over. Still, every cloud and all that: the coming of the ninth month of 2015 also marks the return of the mother of all broadcast trade shows, IBC, and with it a whole host of brand-spanking-new broadcast audio gear. PSNEurope will, as always, be breaking the big stories from the event as they happen, but if you can’t wait that long, or won’t be attending (you really should: they’re showing Inside Out on the IBC Big Screen on Monday!), here’s our hopefully-not-too-out-of-date second roundup of everything we knew at press time. (Read part one in PSNEurope August 2015.) Studio furniture specialist Custom Consoles will showcase a new version of its EditOne desk. The new EditOne goes beyond a traditional rectangular configuration by using sculpted MDF support panels rather than metal legs. The curved theme is carried through to the desktop and a raised monitor shelf. DPA Microphones, which will bring its NAB-launched d:facto Interview and d:fine In-Ear Broadcast Headset microphones to IBC, will be running a daily competition, giving visitors the chance to win a DPA microphone. Anyone who visits the booth during the day and has their badge scanned will receive a DPA pin and be entered into a prize draw. Genelec’s compact Smart Active Monitoring (SAM) series of studio monitors will feature in a small 3D audio set-up at IBC. The Smart Active Monitor concept offers its users automatic acoustic calibration for systems up to 25 speakers and five subwoofers, making it ideal for multichannel systems. The SAM range consists of three different products: The 8320A, a two-way system with a 4” bass driver and ¾” tweeter; the 8330A, also a two-way system, with a 5” bass driver and 3” tweeter; and the 7350A, a subwoofer featuring an 8” drive unit in Genelec´s patented Laminar Spiral Enclosure (LSE) cabinet. Products from Merging, PSI Audio, Nagra Audio and Sonosax – a “display of Swiss excellence” – will feature on the Merging Technologies stand. Merging staff will be on hand to show the latest solutions in its broadcast and post-production range. “See how Ovation offers the most powerful solution for live play-out and show management,” says Merging, “Pyramix shows why it has been a leader

Custom Consoles EditOne

Sennheiser AVX

in DAW technology for so many years and see how your facility can be dramatically transformed by using [our] RAVENNA/AES67 networked audio products.” A demonstration of 3D panning using Pyramix 10 promises to be a stand highlight. Sennheiser will use IBC 2015 to promote its AVX wireless microphone system for video cameras. The compact AVX, launched at NAB in April, plugs directly into the XLR of a camera where it automatically pairs with the mic and switches on when the camera does. It then adjusts the correct audio levels and

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transmits using a specially protected link the licence free 1.9GHz range. Soundcraft will show Studer Vista V its Vi5000 and Vi7000 digital mixing consoles. First seen in Frankfurt in April, the desks replace the Vi4 and Vi6, respectively, offering optional 96kHz processing, upgraded channel counts and improved hardware reliability. The Vi5000 and Vi7000 provide a choice of compact

P25 SEPTEMBER 2015

Merging Technologies Pyramix 10

more than 5,000 inputs and outputs. The use of these processors allows for scaling up to even larger channel counts and for running third-party algorithms, being able to program in high-level languages like C++ – never possible when using DSPs and FPGA – speeds up the time taken to implement new features. The Inﬁnity Core also provides 12 high-capacity A-Link ports (1,536 channels per port) for D23m I/O integration or direct connection into routing systems from Artel, Evertz, Riedel and more. The Vista V also offers easy integration into most AoIP networks used in Soundcraft Vi7000

access to the console’s control logic from almost any web-savvy device, including mobile devices and tablets, irrespective of their. As of IBC 2015 both the control logic and web-based RUI are available without an external host PC, meaning the ON AIR ﬂex joins other Stagetec consoles that run their audio and control routines without any help from an external computer. Tieline describes its Genie Distribution multi-network codec as “the world’s ﬁrst multichannel and multinetwork 1RU codec”. Capable of connecting up to six simultaneous connections over IP, SIP, ISDN and POTS, the codec replaces satellite, circuit-switched and MPLS IP infrastructure and can stream multiple algorithms simultaneously, at different sample rates and bitrates, over all network transports. The Genie Distribution supports up to six simultaneous EBU N/ACIP tech 3326-compliant SIP connections and a variety of connections, including 3

control surfaces with new local rack and active breakout box hardware, delivering simultaneous mixing of up to 128 inputs and 32 mono/stereo buses with up to 384 I/O, allowing unlimited record feeds from all channels. Sound quality is assured with ultra-low noise microphone amplifier designs and enhanced 96kHz 40bit floating point digital audio processing, with the first-ever digital implementation of the classic BSS DPR901ii dynamic EQ adding to its channel processing armoury. Effects contain eight independent Lexicon multi-FX units and a BSS graphic EQ on every bus output. Both consoles also feature an additional dedicated 64ch MADI interface for Realtime Rack – a collaboration with Universal Audio that gives users access to industry standard UA studio plugins. The Vista V digital mixing console, built around Harman sister brand Studer’s Infinity Core processing technology, will also be showcased on the same stand. The 52-fader Vista V is based on the

Stagetec ON AIR ﬂex

broadcast, including Dante, Livewire and AES67. Stagetec will unveil an important update for its ON AIR flex broadcast console. Thanks to the new XACI card, the ON AIR flex’s control logic is now fully embedded into NEXUS, doing away with the need for an external host PC and boosting its virtual console-control features. The Remote User Interface (RUI) is based on web technologies like JavaScript and Webkit and provides same Quad Star technology as its predecessor, the Vista X, but in a more compact footprint for smaller studios, OB trucks and large live productions. The Infinity Core uses CPUbased processors to deliver 800+ audio channels and

x bidirectional stereo connections, 2 x stereo and 2 x mono bidirectional connections, 1 x stereo and 4 x mono bidirectional connections and more. The 2015 International Broadcasting Convention takes place at the Amsterdam RAI on 10–15 September. www.ibc.org (With thanks to Mike Hallinger)

Tieline Genie Distribution

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P26 SEPTEMBER 2015

Broadcast

United Kingdom

UHD is object of DPP The UK’s Digital Production Partnership has issued three reports on new TV delivery technologies, including one on UHD. DPP’s Andy Quested tells Kevin Hilton what’s in the detail, for surround broadcasting and more

ew television delivery and production formats have developed over recent years but now broadcasters are faced with a shift to higher tech ways of working more quickly than might have been expected. Connectivity and transfer of audio and video over IP (AoIP and VoIP) are being consolidated; ultra high-definition (UHD) services have been implemented in India and the UK, with Germany to follow this month. All this is happening before international standards have been put in place, with sound in particular still an issue to be fully decided. National trade bodies are offering interim advice, with the British Digital Production Partnership (DDP) issuing three new guides during this August. The DPP was formed by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to agree specifications and guidelines for the delivery of tapeless, data-based programmes to UK broadcasters. It has produced advisory documents for SD and HD productions, covering audio considerations such as loudness. The three new reports are Ten Things You Need to Know About Connectivity; Ten Things You Need to Know About Ultra High Definition; and Home Truths No1: Reaching Nirvana over IP, a report from the first DPP at Home event, where 30 industry figures discussed the claims being made for IP-based production and broadcast.

5.1 is the minimum for delivery of high-end programmes through BBC Worldwide … stereo isn’t good enough to meet audience expectations

Andy Quested, BBC The reports are the first to be issued since 1 April, when the DPP became a not-for-profit limited company. “The DPP’s mission is to help the broadcasting industry by easing the transition to digital workflows,” comments DPP managing director Mark Harrison. “These three publications show the quality of the industry [and the] wide expertise the DPP can pull together. They will be an invaluable resource for our members.” UHD is the most obviously pressing technology area

where producers, broadcasters and facilities need guidance. The DPP report on the subject describes the technology, lists the relevant technical terms and outlines what effects it will have on TV production. This includes the main visual selling points of UHD: bigger pictures, higher frame rates and dynamic range and wider colour gamut. On the audio side, the situation is less clear. Although NHK’s 22.2 format has long been linked to 4K and 8K and recent tests of UHD have featured 5.1, the current guidelines suggest only stereo as the sound partner. This perhaps should not be seen as too shocking. Speaking to PSNEurope on behalf of the DPP, Andy Quested, the BBC’s head of technology for HD and UHD, points out that there was no set audio standard for HD but 5.1 became a major part of the format. The BBC has decided on 5.1 as the minimum requirement for its UHD productions. “There is a big gap where audio is concerned, although it is closing,” Quested comments. “5.1 is the minimum for delivery of highend programmes through BBC Worldwide. These are only interim guidelines while we’re working with the DPP but stereo isn’t good enough to meet audience expectations.” The ultimate aim with UHD is to have some form of immersive surround sound, including a sensation of height as well as width and length. There were always doubts about implementing 22.2 because of the number of loudspeaker channels involved. Quested observes that even NHK is beginning to question the viability of the format for production. “We need to ﬁnd a more efficient way to deliver surround,” he says. “Fixed channels are not viable in terms of production. On something like the Olympics there are many sources from various locations. These could have different options when they arrive at the sound desk and each would have to be reproduced as 22.2. Some sources will be pre-mixed but there still won’t be enough faders. We have to think differently about that and how the audience hears the sound.” For these early stages of UHD, Quested says there will be no changes to the audio requirements. “But in the second phase, when the standards have settled down, there needs to be a move away from channelbased operation to objects,” he says. “There will have to be some form of object-based descriptor for how the signals being delivered to the home are decoded. SMPTE and the ITU are looking at this for mapping and

www.psneurope.com/broadcast

Andy Quested

are moving away from channels. If we start with 5.1 and then move to objects that will be easier.” While films and high-end drama and documentaries are clear beneficiaries of immersive sound, Quested points out that not all programmes will require some form of enhanced surround: “As we move into objectbased spatial audio there will be anything from two speakers up to infinite. But there are other issues to consider, such as audibility. We have an aging population and we have to be careful with a flexible approach because we don’t want to upset the audience. What is good sound for people who know about and work in audio can be bad for everyone else.” The DPP reports can be downloaded from the organisation’s website. Further publications on UHD and the other subjects are planned for later in the year. www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk

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P28 SEPTEMBER 2015

Feature: Broadcast consoles

The George Lucas stage sound gallery at Elstree now features a Studer Vista X

Strictly mixing Broadcast mixing consoles have not changed massively in appearance of late, despite the wholesale move to digital. The differences lie beneath, with more routing and networking capability. But the main function of the desk is to mix, and that seems to be more of a priority once again, as Kevin Hilton reports

he advent of new technologies on longestablished equipment can often detract from what the device was originally designed to do. Over the last five or so years the traditional mixing console – the core of the sound control room that is used to take incoming feeds and mix them into a balanced, finished output – has been supplemented with routing and switching functions through having sophisticated network systems connected to it. This has come about through the changing nature of TV programmes and how they are produced. With increasingly complicated and fast-moving productions, routing and networking are ever more important. Interconnection between consoles and routers is well established in broadcast centres where signals have to be passed round and shared between various departments, calling for video and audio switchers and servers to talk to each other seamlessly. This has now extended into the mixing desk having its own digital

router that can take feeds from stage boxes in the studio, and anywhere else inside or outside the studios complex, before distributing them. v Now that this combination is established, manufacturers and users alike are looking to push the routing function more into the background and give prominence once again to what the mixing console – and its operator – was always intended to do: mix. Not that the situation can go completely back to how it was before: there is now less of a division between the mixing and routing functions, and the sound mixer is responsible for both.

Everything at once “The blurred line between mixing and routing does indeed exist,” agrees Phil Owens, eastern US sales for Wheatstone. “That’s because today’s audio board is really the user interface for the audio router. That router, in general, has become more decentralised. An IP-based system like WheatNet-IP will consist of many

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networked I/O and processing devices that can be spread throughout the facility and beyond, as opposed to a centralised router cage with I/O cards in the rack room.” Owens sees the modern audio system being divided into functional blocks: acquisition, mixing/ processing and distribution. “The ‘acquisition’ block is very interesting today,” he says, “because you may be acquiring mic audio from the next room or remote audio from [a great distance] away sent to you via IP Unicast. That mix will also include server playback sent to you over the in-house LAN. It can include MADI [multichannel digital audio interface] from an intercom system or another MADI equipped router. And, of course, there are still HD/SDI embedded sources. All of these sources are available on the control surface – aka the audio board – for mixing and processing.” Bosse Ternstrom, a sound mixer, producer and R&D engineer with Swedish (Sveriges) Radio, agrees that the audio mixer is now responsible for more functions

P29 SEPTEMBER 2015

Console and routing considerations for outside broadcast The OB market has fully embraced digital consoles but still needs them to be straightforward and easy to use by a pool of freelance operators. Arena Television has expanded its fleet with several new trucks over the last few years, including the recent OB11, featuring a Calrec Artemis desk, and OB14, which broke the mould for the UK market in featuring a Lawo. The company is in the early stages of building another truck; OBX will cater for 4K production and is intended to be as technologically up to date as possible. Arena’s head of sound, Tim Rowden, says there are still issues in terms of routers handling both 4K and AoIP. While saying that an IP network is being considered, Rowden acknowledges analogue will still play a part with connections on the tail board. “The console is likely to be a Calrec Apollo,” he says. “We need a desk to be easy to use with the ability to make changes on the fly. The main difference will possibly be some decent ceiling speakers in case we need to do Dolby Atmos.” www.arena-tv.com and runs them all from the audio desk. “Everything has ended up in our laps,” he comments. “Ever since DAWs and digital consoles made their way into our lives, more and more of the functionality is really up to a single user. Back in the day there were tape machines and other gear that needed physical assistance, such as pressing record or loading a tape, using the patchbay or whatever. All that ended up being done by you, in a closed environment. It is just you who sees what is being done and in which order.” Another trend Ternstrom identifies in what the modern broadcast console has to do is centralisation, the dream being that anyone can mix and control a programme being made in one studio or location from a control room some distance away. “There is a very complex structure in the background but it is still dead simple for the end user,” he explains. “In TV more resources are centralised, which essentially saves them a lot of money as they can send small crews to the actual event and have video mixers, audio mixers, producers and everybody else in-house, with just a cameraman and presenters at the site.”

Far away so close Lawo is currently involved in trials of remote production in the UK and other European countries using its digital consoles and the RAVENNA audio-over-IP (AoIP) system. “RAVENNA is a transport system that can be used for networking but also on a WAN [wide area network] basis,” says Barry Revels, Lawo’s UK agent. “In the tests streams are being sent up and down from football grounds in the north of England to studios in London, with remote control over the local mics. It’s a completely new concept for workﬂows and efficiency and is based

There is now a growing trend in broadcasting for audio control rooms to be able to work with more than one studio or location, rather than being dedicated to a speciﬁc facility. This has been recognised by most of the leading console manufacturers, which are producing more general-purpose desks that can be used for a variety of applications or simpler consoles for use by less experienced operators. Lawo launched the mc236 at IBC 2014 for the lower cost market, with features suited to music mixing as well as on-air broadcast. “There is not so much control on the user surface but there are soft buttons that can be used for speciﬁc functions,” says Revels.

Democratising the mixing console

The blurred line between mixing and routing does indeed exist

Phil Owens, Wheatstone on devices with IP addresses working end-to-end rather than point-to-point.” A key part of this is the Viscon (Visible Connection) Navigator software that allows all the equipment to be visualised on the external PC being used for control. “This doesn’t have to be done through the master control room, it can come into the audio suite where the mixing is being done,” Revels says.

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Calrec Audio introduced the desk now branded as the Summa at IBC 2013, aiming it at local news stations and lower budget channels that might not have a trained sound engineer or operator working full-time. The control surface has been designed to be as simple as possible so that non-professional or inexperienced operators – including lighting technicians and production staff – would be able to run it. To do this, the channels have been stripped down to the basics, with features such as input gain made easy to ﬁnd. Dave Letson, Calrec’s vice-president of sales, explains that this style of operation is proving popular for news and sports programmes: “There is a need to get ﬁxed-format shows like that on air and they’re being done without an audio operator. The presenter is often responsible for putting up his or her own mic but the director is running the whole show.” Letson adds that consoles have changed considerable over the past 10 years from being a desk with a patchbay to being linked

P30 SEPTEMBER 2015

Feature: Broadcast consoles

Andy Tapley (left) and Tony Revell mixing Strictly on the older Vista 8 desk

to stage boxes through a routing system. “In that way the desk is that much nearer the mics today,” he says. “There’s also the ability to swap studios and control rooms round and use the console that makes sense for the studio production.” A similar approach to this is being used by BBC Studios and Post Production (S&PP) at its Elstree studio complex. Three audio control rooms equipped with Studer Vista 1 desks are able to work with one of four studios or the main lot during the making of the soap opera EastEnders. The Vista 1 is a smaller, more basic version of the larger Studer consoles that BBC S&PP uses at its studios. “They’re being used by experienced sound supervisors who are able to concentrate on setting up and running the desks without getting into all the detail of the technology,” comments sound supervisor Andy Tapley [who you may remember from PSNPresents in March – Ed]. “They’ve got the faders and a couple of snapshots but the desk is doing more in the background with remote control by MADI and embedding and de-embedding, with everything injected to Avid for editing.” Tapley says that sound supervisors have always been responsible for routing and patching sources and outputs but that now everything is done on a graphical user interface. “I haven’t plugged a mic source on double-enders for quite a few years,” he says. “There’s now huge potential for different scenarios, including

band set-ups and so on.” Tapley adds that while the Vista 1 is good for a soap opera, it would not be the thing for a light entertainment (LE) extravaganza such as Strictly Come Dancing. This show is due to start its ninth run soon and is also produced at Elstree, only on the big George Lucas stage. A Vista X has now been installed in the sound gallery for this production to cope with the large number of sources that Strictly calls for, including presenter and competitor mics and miking the live orchestra. “We’re using RAVENNA to link to Pyramix, with two MADI and 24 AES feeds linking into the Horus interface,” Tapley explains. “That’s necessary because of the high track count on big LE shows these days. Strictly has gone up from 88 to 128. We upgraded the Vista 8 desk to the Vista X and a lot more is possible now with that expandability.”

Angst removal Tapley adds that the greater amount of processing and automation on modern consoles means operators can get on with the serious business of mixing rather than more mundane, albeit important, tasks like routing: “It takes away the operational angst so you can concentrate on the content.” A recent innovation that also gives mixers more freedom is auto-mixing, which features on many leading desks today. Systems such as Lawo’s AutoMix and VistaMix from Studer are not

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intended to do away with the operator but to deal with level changes during fast-moving talk shows. “Mic automixing has become more popular lately,” Phil Owens at Wheatstone acknowledges. “We have it built into our D3 and IP64 boards and it provides gain averaging, gating and ducking on a selected group of inputs. It balances soft talkers with loud talkers, downward expands mics not being addressed to reduce ambient pickup, and allows a host mic to cause guest mics to duck when the host is speaking. That really helps in those shouting heads segments.” Rather than being a replacement for the sound mixer or a prop for less experienced operators, automixing is seen as an aid, that allows the engineer to ﬁnesse the mix and not have to keep on riding faders. According to Dave Letson at Calrec it can also be used creatively: “In the US one guy used it really gently to mix a quartet accompanying a female singer-guitarist,” he says. “Likewise people are using automixing to avoid making mistakes, such as missing someone speaking on air.” After a concentrated period of development resulting in new features for consoles, broadcast sound engineers and manufacturers alike are realising that technology can be more effective when it’s less intrusive. www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com www.calrec.com www.lawo.com www.wheatstone.com

P32 SEPTEMBER 2015

Live

Germany

AiRAY vision

By offering squeezed PA companies and installers high output in a compact footprint, Coda Audio claims to have created ‘a new category in line arrays’. Jon Chapple felt AiRAY at the big launch

t’s mid-July and PSNEurope is sitting on the grass behind Coda Audio distributor Audiovation’s HQ in Wenden-Gerlingen, Germany. It’s a comfortable 26°C and a slightly strange Teutonic-reggae cover of Wish You Were Here is giving Coda’s brand-new AiRAY line-array system a workout less than 100 yards away. It’s not a bad way to spend a Wednesday morning. But, as you may have deduced, PSNEurope is not in Wenden on holiday: rather we’re here to experience what Coda’s sales and marketing director, Paul Ward, is calling a “new category in line-array systems”. The last time PSNEurope was a guest of Coda was at the October 2012 launch of the AiRAY’s predecessor, the ViRAY. A medium-sized line array which incorporates the then-new DDP (Dual Diaphragm Planar) wave-driver technology, the ViRAY was seen by many as an ambitious bid from the Hanover-based manufacturer to seriously challenge the world’s ‘top five’ established loudspeaker brands. The ViRAY was well received, with especial praise for its innovative double-coil compression driver and star turns at Creamfields festival, the Pro Sound Awards-nominated WWI musical 14–18 (see PSNLive 2014), comedian Jack Whitehall’s 2014 UK tour and its recent installation in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (the UK’s first ViRAY install). Like the ViRAY, the AiRAY (pronounced “eye-ray”) – first seen at Prolight + Sound in April – incorporates the DDP driver, a patented evolution of the annular ring diaphragm driver created by Coda Audio founder Svetly Alexandrov in 1996, and the AiCOUPLER sensor-controlled subwoofer technology and linearphase DSP processing (called ‘ViCOUPLER’ in the ViRAY). However, while it may be argued that with the ViRAY the company was too heavily focussed on specs appeal (a transgression in which it is by no means alone), 2015’s Coda Audio is increasingly occupied with more practical concerns.

The AiRAY/ViRAY hangs as seen from the DiGiCo SD10 at the mix position

Not just about the sound In a speech to the 85 dealers, distributors and members of the press assembled in Wenden, in the Sauerland, about 45 miles from Cologne, Paul Ward outlined that the AiRAY system, despite its impressive vital statistics, is “not just about the sound”. Highlighting savings in truck space and manpower – two people can rig the system as opposed to six or more – as well as the associated increase

Placebo FOH engineer Ian Nelson (left) tutors Rawad Saad, the owner of Coda’s representative in the UAE, Sound on Stage Events

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P33 SEPTEMBER 2015

On the HOPS On day two of the launch, Coda also demoed its new dual 8â&#x20AC;? passive HOPS (High Output Point Source) system. Introduced at Prolight + Sound 2015, HOPS comes in two hardware options â&#x20AC;&#x201C; HOPST, for mobile applications, and HOPSi, for permanent installations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and is optimised for near-ďŹ eld applications in small-tomedium-sized venues, providing 100Â° x 100Â° coverage for applications including corporate events, product presentations, exhibitions, small live shows, DJs, small nightclubs and AV rooms or as stage monitors, frontďŹ lls and under-balconies.

x 15â&#x20AC;? (large and heavy, high output) and 2 x 6.5â&#x20AC;? (compact and light, low output). The AiRAY, with a maximum peak SPL of 148dB from its 40kg boxes, falls, naturally, somewhere in the top right. Value for money was also paramount for Alexandrovâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team when considering how the AiRAY would be rigged: its integrated three-point rigging system is designed to reduce investment cost by sharing system components with the ViRAY, including the aforementioned SC2-F bassextension system and SCP subs, SCV-F ďŹ&#x201A;yable subwoofer and even identical bi-amp cabling. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Usually a sound system is a package of different system components like low [-end] extensions, subwoofers, frames, ampliďŹ cation, etc,â&#x20AC;? says Codaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official launch blurb. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Therefore investing in

a new system requires the purchase of its speciďŹ c system components, increasing considerably the cost. [AiRAY] allows ViRAY users to upgrade easily to AiRAY using their existing SC2/SCV cabinets, LINUS RACKs, cables, etc.â&#x20AC;? At the Audiovation demos, 12 AiRAY and three ViRAY boxes per side were complemented by SC2-F bass extension modules and SCP-F subs. In a mature industry mostly dominated by a select few speaker manufacturers, Codaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pitch for the AiRAY is refreshingly direct: roughly, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll match Brand X on specs, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do it a lot more cost-effectivelyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. But PA companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; operating costs arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the only thing Coda is targeting with the AiRAY. With potential uses including both large events like

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in proďŹ t margins, he emphasises that Coda â&#x20AC;&#x153;wanted to make something that was relevant to the current market situationâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;sympathetic to the guys who are [going to be] using itâ&#x20AC;?. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this that is AiRAYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary USP: that of a line-array system which combines the output of a large-format system with the ďŹ&#x201A;exibility of a compact one â&#x20AC;&#x201C; hence â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a new category in line arraysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to reduce operating costs and increase the proďŹ tability of the sound companies using it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;AiRAY was conceived to address the growing needs of system integrators and rental companies alike,â&#x20AC;? explained Ward. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No other manufacturer has provided these sonic results in a lightweight package that has the same footprint as a dual 8â&#x20AC;? system. â&#x20AC;&#x153;AiRAY changes the way the market will look at highoutput sound systems, now and in the future. We wanted to use our technology to create tangible beneďŹ ts for the user without compromise in the performance. This has been achieved to a level which will set the standard for many years to come.â&#x20AC;&#x153; This was then ably demonstrated by Alexandrov on an Xâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Y-axis graph â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the X axis showing weight/portability, from â&#x20AC;&#x153;large, heavy, not ďŹ&#x201A;exibleâ&#x20AC;? to â&#x20AC;&#x153;compact, light, very ďŹ&#x201A;exibleâ&#x20AC;?, and the Y output, from â&#x20AC;&#x153;low outputâ&#x20AC;? to â&#x20AC;&#x153;very high outputâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which pitted the AiRAY against standard 2 x 12â&#x20AC;? and 2

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P34 SEPTEMBER 2015

Live

festivals and arena shows and small and mediumsized applications such as corporate events, club tours or small theatres, the system’s size and weight (or lack of it) affords it an adaptability lacking in many larger competitors. According to Coda, the “large size, weight and inﬂexibility of [large, high-output] systems, as well as higher operating costs” has meant traditionally that “sound companies need to keep different systems for different applications. AiRAY changes the rules.”

One rig to rule them all The company also highlights another ‘unique solution’ where AiRAY excels: in older venues with limited ceiling-load capacities. In particular, Alexandrov – who described the system as “the most difficult product Coda has ever created” –identified Europe’s historic theatres as a potential install application: “they are beautiful but weak,” he said, “so they [have to] fly small, low-output systems [which are lacking in sound pressure]”. One attendee also pointed correctly to the AiRAY’s smaller footprint as being beneficial at festivals and large outdoor concerts, where organisers want to

block as little of the view of the stage as possible. In addition to the standard ‘pro-audio demo’ playlist of light jazz, world music, dodgy a capella cover versions and Phil Collins, the Wenden demos included two ‘live’ mixing sessions with Placebo’s FOH engineer, Adlib Audio senior engineer Ian Nelson. (Adlib is one of two UK Coda dealers and the exclusive dealer for ViRAY and TiRAY systems.) Nelson, who has worked with Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal’s alt-rock act for almost two decades, worked his magic on the multis from a recent live show before handing over his DiGiCo SD10 to attendees to try their hand at mixing songs like Loud Like Love and Space Monkey. “If you want to come down here and show me what a terrible engineer I am, feel free!” he joked. Although Wednesday was plenty loud enough, the system was given more of a workout – although, Ward assured us, there was plenty more headroom available – on Thursday morning, when guests were requested to stand as far away from the speakers as physically possible without backing into a hedge and given a bone-rattling blast of U R So Fucked by Infected Mushroom.

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While all on site were impressed – including your correspondent, whose notes were full of words like “detailed”, “natural”, “smooth” and “non-fatiguing” even as his heart vibrated out of his chest – other reactions were mixed: workers on a nearby industrial estate phoned to request some AC/DC, while the residents of a village several kilometres away complained to the police about the noise. (Tough crowd.) Still, it’s the customer, not the Sauerlandish curtain-twitcher, who is always right, and the response from the former was sufficiently positive that Coda received several orders on the day, including from 14-18 hire company Studio Haifax, which bought 48 AiRAY boxes with four LINUS RACK40s and 28 SCP subwoofers with four LINUS 10Cs via Benelux distributor Viladco. “Attendees were very impressed with all aspects of AiRAY,” says Coda Audio’s Bjoern Marek. “Audiovation’s demo area is a paved space with a grassed slope behind to the back of it. When Ian Nelson put his multitrack mix of Placebo through the system, people were literally pushed up the hill because the SPL was so great!” www.codaaudio.com

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P36

Live

SEPTEMBER 2015

Italy

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s... a thousand Foo Fighters fans and a whole heap of recording kit in a park near Rimini. Mike Clark was our man on the ground with viral video-mongers Rockin’ 1000

n 26 July, in Cesena, near Rimini, Italy, 1,000 musicians (250 drummers, 350 guitarists, 150 bass players and 250 vocalists), selected from applicants from all over Italy, recorded the Foo Fighters’ song Learn to Fly in an appeal to the rock band to come and play in the city. A seven-minute YouTube clip of the performance, rounded off by a heartfelt plea from organiser Fabio Zaffagnini to the members of the band, soon went viral, with 22 million views at press time (add one more at youtu.be/JozAmXo2bDE). It quickly reached the attention of the ‘nicest man in rock’, Dave Grohl – who responded with a video message humbly accepting the invitation. The event, accomplished on a very tight budget

Penolazzi (left) and Ferrari (All photos: Roberto Ugolini)

HYDRA2. CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT. WE’RE BETTER TOGETHER. Broadcast infrastructures designed around complex communication networks offer unparalleled potential for interoperability across all kinds of audio and video hardware. These networks provide clear cost beneﬁts as well as high levels of resilience, contingency planning and control protocols across parallel equipment. Calrec’s industry-leading Hydra2 offers a simple, intuitive solution for managing this potential without unnecessary complications, enabling full integration with the wider broadcast community.

calrec.com

Provided as standard on Apollo, Artemis and Summa consoles, Hydra2 is yet another reason the world’s most successful broadcasters rely on Calrec.

ARTEMIS

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P37 SEPTEMBER 2015

Lâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;R: Penolazzi, Zaffagnini and Cisko

Positioned on a central riser and facing the 1,000 (though barely seen in the video) the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;guruâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; band, who wrote the parts and selected the musicians, were covered with near-ďŹ eld placement of four MKH40s, an EV408s, an SM57 on the snare and BSS DI boxes. The rest of the mics were around 100 classic Shure SM58s, distributed between vocalists stage front and elsewhere among the musicians. As monitors, the vocalists had an Adamson rig comprising 12 B218 subs and 12 MH-225 mid/high cabinets, supplied by Paride Pironiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s TD Rent. Point-source speakers, mounted to give 180Â° dispersion, were chosen, as line-array characteristics were deemed to be unsuitable. Cans for a conventional click track were

only available for 250 musicians, so the other participants followed a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;luminous clickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; provided by 12 DTS LED ďŹ xtures mounted on the 18â&#x20AC;&#x2122; tower hosting conductor Marco Sabiu. Apart from the sheer scale of Rockinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1000, another incredible aspect of the event was that the crowd of over 2,000 watching the recording managed to remain silent during the seven takes in total it took to make the recording and video. Rockinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1000 production manager Claudia Spadoni comments: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked on a lot of large complex events, but everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enthusiasm for this event was something you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see every day, and turning a dream into reality was really magic!â&#x20AC;? Â&#x201E; www.rockin1000.com

Conductor Marco Sabiu

The drum section

and entitled Rockinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1000 was staged in a Cesena park. The 48-track recording of the audio was made by Sandro â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Amekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ferrari and Vanis Dondi, interfaced via ADAT/MADI with the production set-up. The rest of the audio team comprised sound designer Francesco Penolazzi, sound and lighting supervisor Cisko, Alberto Paderni and Lucio Boiardi Serri of Bluebeet Studio, responsible for mix and mastering, and Francesco Filomena (protocol engineer and MIDI specialist). Penolazzi positioned 48 AKG 414 ULS microphones overhead throughout the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;stage areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in wide cardioid conďŹ guration. (Mic stands were mounted atop wind-up stands to reach the required height.) The band was thus covered in sections, obtaining a more selective compact mix. The consoles used were a Yamaha PM5D + DSP5D (PM5D brain without control surface) and an 01V96. On 9m lifts a short distance from the mega band, the audio team positioned two more 414s (one cardioid and one ďŹ gureof-eight for the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;MSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; technique), two Sennheiser MKH816 shotguns and two Sennheiser MKH40 cardioids in Xâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Y mode.

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P38 SEPTEMBER 2015

Live

France

Tower of power Gilles Bouvard, Radio France and Optocore networked up a storm in the shadow of la tour Eiffel for Bastille Day

rance’s Bastille Day spectacular, held annually in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, again sparked huge celebrations this year. The 2015 quatorze juillet ﬁreworks display took on an extra signiﬁcance as its theme, ‘Paris Welcomes The World’, was geared very much to the city’s bid to stage the 2024 Olympic Games. A classical concert in the Champs de Mars, presented by the French National Orchestra and Grand Choir of Radio France (plus soloists) was staged in front of over 500,000 spectators, with millions more tuning in to live broadcasts on Radio France and France 2 TV. After experiencing problems with sound continuity in 2014, pristine signal transmission was essential,

so Radio France’s head of sound reinforcement, Bruno Lompech, contracted Gilles Bouvard’s Events & Entertainment (GB4D) and tasked it with designing a sophisticated Optocore network based on a site-wide dual-redundant ring. The resulting signal transmission was largely over AES3 and digital MADI, with analogue back-up made possible by the deployment of Optocore DD32R-FX and XR6-FX-8MI/LO devices. Bouvard provided seamless network and audio signal transmission between several control rooms: FOH, broadcast, monitor and ﬁreworks soundtrack. He says: “The main requirement was to create a reliable optical ﬁbre network to eliminate any risk of electromagnetic interference or use of galvanised cables between the various points to be connected.”

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Out in the ﬁeld, two Lawo FOH mixing consoles were linked to Adamson E15 line arrays via Lake LM44 processors, with an Innovason SY80 console at the stage. Low latency was the top priority, and in this respect broadcast preferred an Optocore solution to other protocols used for delays out in the Champs de Mars. Meanwhile, analogue broadcast feeds were sent from a Studer Vista 5 in the Silence OB van. The recommendation of Bouvard to Radio France had originally come from sound engineer Stéphane Pelletier, of PA company Lagoona, who had been impressed by GB4D’s deployment of the large Optocore network for the Joan of Arc Festivals in Orleans. (It was Pelletier who implemented the audio PA system for Radio France in Paris, assisted by Delphine Hannotin).

Gilles Bouvard (left) and Radio France’s Bruno Lompech

Following his appointment, Bouvard got to work designing a complex schematic which was presented to Laurent Fracchia, sound director at Radio France, and other FOH sound engineers, and the Optocore network principle was adopted. For his television sound mix, Fracchia needed analogue converters in the form of two Optocore X6R-FX8MI/8LO because only four MADI ports were available on Silence’s Vista 5, and these were required for stageboxes and multitrack recorders. Analogue audience mics were also captured and distributed via the Optocore preamps. The Vista 5, meanwhile, streamed orchestra, choirs and final mix to FOH, where all mixing consoles were connected to the Optocore network via MADI. This protocol was recovered via three Optocore DD2FR-FX: two for the Lawo NOVA routing system, which was connected to both Lawo MCe32 and MCe 24 consoles, and one for the Yamaha DM1000, which was equipped with a 16 I/O MADI card. While the DM1000 handled advertising play-ins and firework soundtracks, both Lawo desks were used to capture live the Grand Orchestra and Great Choir of Radio France (and soloists). In total six DD32R-FX interfaces were deployed, along with two older X6P-8MI/8LO – connected to AES ports of the DD32R-FX – three DD2FR-FX and six X6R-FX-8MI/8LO. Both the Lake LM44 processors and Lab.gruppen PLM20000Q amps were connected to the Optocore network via AES3 from a DD32R-FX with analogue back-up. Finally, production also used analogue video monitoring devices, utilising composite video I/O built into the DD32R-FX and DD2FR-FX, for control in the OB van, FOH and the fireworks soundtrack. Lompech states: “The Optocore

solution not only brought us the peace of mind necessary for an event of this magnitude, but the technology itself, the simple implementation and security against external interference through the use of the fibre were all huge advantages. “I was also impressed by the minimal latency time for the routing of signals – whether they be analogue, digital or in the MADI format.” Lompech’s original request had been merely to set up a number of secure signal transport topologies from the console to the various control locations. “But we realised we could use the Optocore network to route signals from the ambient mics to the mobile recording unit and also to connect the outputs of the console returns to the stage monitor amps,” he observes. “Finally, we were able to use the Optocore network for routing and analogue video signal control.” He adds that for the future he is already considering a more comprehensive solution where the whole transport of microphone recording can be entrusted to the network. “With the MADI protocol being present on most consoles, signal transport time being so fast and Optocore’s preamps corresponding to our expectations, a sharing of resources will produce an even more qualitative solution. In terms of installation this will greatly simplify the task.” Such is the strength of their resource that GB4D were simultaneously handling a similar Bastille Day festival in the city of Toulouse, where they used 22 Optocore devices to cover distances of up to 6km (3.7mi). “The reason we are able to undertake such large projects requiring Optocore is because we have 18km of quad single-mode optical fibre in our rental fleet,” concludes Bouvard. www.optocore.com www.gillesbouvard.com www.radiofrance.fr

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P40 SEPTEMBER 2015

Live

Republic of Ireland

Outline takes field for Carreras and Jenkins

An Outline C-12 system driven by Powersoft X ampliﬁers for the very ﬁrst time. The result? Perfection, suggests Michael Burns

his summer saw the City of Cork Symphony Orchestra (CCSO) at Cork’s legendary Musgrave Park for a blockbuster concert. Superstar Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins and Spanish tenor José Carreras performed full sets with the CCSO, with Outline’s GTO C-12 also showing true star talent in tackling a tricky venue. Dublin-based EQ Audio and Events has supplied events in Musgrave Park, a wellestablished fixture in Irish rugby, on previous occasions, but, as production manager Shay Hannon found out, a new grandstand had been built over the winter months. “We treated it like a new venue when commenced the design for this show,” says Hannon. “One of the main challenges was its proximity to residential properties - and ensuring that we had no audio spillover at these properties. Thankfully, with Outline’s OpenArray 3D software package, this issue was able to be addressed in the advanced stage of the project and the system was exactly as predicted.” Steven Carr, FOH for Katherine Jenkins for the past five years approved of the PA design. “The venue is primarily used as a sports ground but the production team made a decent attempt at turning it into a concert venue,” says Carr. “The main acoustic challenges were caused by the reflective nature of the grandstands themselves and the varying height at which the audience members were located, making coverage tricky.” “We used 12 Outline GTO C-12 per side for the main left and right hangs, with some Outline Butterfly CDH-483 cabinets for fills,” Hannon explains. “Outfill hangs comprised 10 CDH-483s per side, with some shadow fills behind FOH mix, again, with CDH-483 cabs.” “All the CDH-483s were powered with (Powersoft rebadged) Outline T7 amps, while the GTO C-12s were powered by the brand new Powersoft X8 amplifiers,” he adds. EQ’s Outline kit had been supplied by CUK Audio, whose live sound brand manager Rich Soper was under no illusion why Hannon had gone with this choice for the PA. “A very consistent and transparent sound was needed with a very even coverage and zero coloration,” says Soper. “That’s why EQ chose to deploy C12.” “As usual it stunned everyone that heard it,” continues Soper. “The riggers love it as the integrated rigging system is a thing of beauty, it goes up incredibly quickly. “At 70kg per box you can get an awful lot of SPL hanging on a one-ton point for the smaller jobs. Considering its SPL is the same as ‘the market-leading large-format system’ but the size is much smaller and the physical size of the amps are so small, it greatly reduces set up times and transport costs.” The Powersoft amps also proved to be a good choice. “The X Series were amazing in terms of power output, ease of use - and much to the delight of the site manager - a huge saving in generator fuel,” says Hannon. “To be able to power 24 GTO and 16 GTO Subs using six amplifiers makes the X Series an essential tool for the touring market. “Even though we had used the system before in the same venue, it didn’t cease

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P41 SEPTEMBER 2015

to amaze in terms of its performance. The vocal clarity and tone was second to none and the excellent HF throw and coverage of the the GTO C-12 stunned JosĂŠ Carrerasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s FOH engineer, Peter Schneekloth.â&#x20AC;? Indeed, Schneekloth, who has worked with Carreras for 14 years, gave a one-word response â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x153;perfectâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; when asked how well the Powersoft X Series amps worked

with the Outline GTO C12 system. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The system delivered a very good sound as a starting point, so I only had to make some phase-alignment and ďŹ ne tuning of EQ,â&#x20AC;? says the engineer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I just added my Lexicon PCM reverb plug-in with an RME interface for orchestra and vocal reverb. I also had two custom-modiďŹ ed dbx376 valve preamps with de-essers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The centre, frontďŹ lls, outďŹ lls and subs were mixed via separate auxes. Usually I prefer to do the main mix all by myself, but in Cork it was a big pleasure working together with Steven Carr.â&#x20AC;? Carr had an Avid ProďŹ le at FOH for Katherine Jenkins. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There was a Midas H3000 looking after onstage monitoring,â&#x20AC;? he adds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had d&b M4s as wedges and the vocal mics were all Schoeps mk4. When I arrived on the morning of the show I walked around and made some EQ and level adjustments using a combination of my ears and acoustic measurement software.â&#x20AC;? Overall Schneekloth said the coverage was â&#x20AC;&#x153;very evenâ&#x20AC;?. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had a grandstand at one side, with nothing on the other, so it was an asymmetric venue,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and the grandstand was relatively big compared to the stalls area.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We made a few changes with the outďŹ lls for the grandstand, but the rest worked from the beginning very well. It was a great help to work with the engineers and technicians from EQ Audio, as well as the support of Francesco Ferretti from Outline.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The beneďŹ ts of a system like the Outline I used are clear,â&#x20AC;? concludes Carr. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Good sound quality, good efficiency and plenty of headroom. All the guys onsite were very helpful and keen to make the show a success. I was very grateful for that.â&#x20AC;? Â&#x201E; www.outlinearray.com www.eqaudioandevents.com

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P42 SEPTEMBER 2015

Installation

The outdoor stage has left and right clusters of RoomMatch modules

Italy

The Interpretation of Themes

Phil Ward follows the Yellow Brick Road to Rome and meets the Wizard of Bose

igmund Freud may have focussed on the unconscious, but more important in today’s themed world of entertainment and distraction is the very conscious engineering of customer experience – and, as just one part of a multimedia supply chain, pro audio is getting very good at it. A theme park, for such is the famous old Italian film studio Cinecittà nowadays, is in many ways the ideal place to showcase a broad catalogue of professional loudspeakers. The sheer variation in acoustic spaces – you could say the many different areas of experience in-fill – constitute the full set of demands that any single project could have. Consequently all the solutions are laid out under one roof or, in a place like this, one sky and scores of rooves from sound-stages-turned-theatres to, yes, the inside of a submarine. Ambient speakers put sound effects in odd corners. Outdoor speakers make the hedgerows and fences talk and sing, providing cues for actors and other scheduled events that transform typical days here into a kind of surreal calendar that Freud would have loved. Small, medium and large stages spring up everywhere for various shows, needing all levels of sound reinforcement from simple to large – and, since this is a flagship Bose Professional installation, that means all the way from portable L1 Compact arrays to every size of Panaray models and full-scale RoomMatch hangs.

The different areas of the park are largely dedicated to one film genre or another, associated with the golden years of Cinecittà’s output. Not just Spaghetti Westerns, then – also Gnocchi Horrors, Spirali Sci-Fis and Ravioli Rom-Coms. Cinecittà World’s ‘Main Street’ is modelled on 1920s New York, complete with cops and gangsters, but another zone which recreates an Old West town is the first promenade wherein visitors encounter original music written by Spaghetti Western legend Ennio Morricone. It comes to them via 20 Bose Panaray 402-II outdoor mid-highs and 10 MB12 subs, delayed and programmed via the unique combination of Bose’s ControlSpace signal processing, MediaMatrix and Dante networking – as is the whole park. Remote control access is everywhere, and all is zoned, planned and programmed. Except, that is, for the daily Enigma show in Teatro 1, once used for the filming of Joseph Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra among many other Cinecittà triumphs. It’s an independent system, but it’s one of Bose Professional’s signature standalone theatre installs and deals with a lot more than the Queen of Egypt. “It’s a nice show,” observes Akira Mochimaru, general manager of Bose Professional, who toured the facility a week before PSNEurope, “but it’s mostly playback. Acoustically, this huge sound stage – like an aircraft hangar – is not very friendly. The system’s doing a good job, especially with a reverberation time of about four seconds. RoomMatch is managing to

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The idea behind the park was to keep the spirit of movies alive after the studio effectively closed

Riccardo Capo, Cinecittà World

P43 SEPTEMBER 2015

More zones and attractions are due to be added to the park

control that.” There are 16 RoomMatch modules, 10 RMS215 bass modules, eight RMS218 subs, six RMU208 front fills, 14 PowerMatch PM8500N networkable amplifiers and four ControlSpace processors with Dante cards. Enigma is mixed on a Yamaha QL5, and there’s another one in Teatro 4 where a smaller sound reinforcement system hangs six RoomMatch modules, with four RMS215s, four RMS218s, six PowerMatch PM8500Ns and one ControlSpace DSP with Dante. Cinecittà World puts on this multimedia confection every day, but the space is eminently useable for medium-scale concerts and tours passing through the area. It’s not clear yet how the commercial relationship between the theme park and the real world will evolve, but the potential is vivid. Once filming of a remake of Ben Hur is completed, in the wider expanses of the site still used as an actual backlot, the park will add more zones and attractions until half of Lazio contributes to the illusion. The current expanse of the park makes good use of the latest DSP technology. Federico Carnevale, professional and live music account manager at Bose, explains the invisible web of sound. “MediaMatrix routes the signals from the audio players to all the zones, and is also on the Dante network,” he says. “So we have several amplifier racks in different zones, but they’re all connected to the network. Typically, one processor has a range of amplifiers with different IP addresses. From MediaMatrix you can route a signal to each address or to a single channel or a choice of channels, enabling you to distribute the audio signals on the network.” “So the amps are not all together in one control room; they’re located all around the park,” adds Paolo D’Innocenzo, Bose Professional’s sales manager for Italy. “There are about 10 nodes: at every node there is one rack of amplifiers and MediaMatrix hardware, and every node is connected via Dante. Dante is the ‘cloud’ that manages all the signals.” There are short cable runs between the

Bose Professional’s Paolo D’Innocenzo (left) and Federico Carnevale

loudspeakers and the closest amp rack, and then a fibre-optic link between the racks and one control room that contains all of the signal sources: the fibre ring was put in earlier, with a channel set aside for audio. “MediaMatrix is the audio management system,” continues D’Innocenzo, “giving the amplifiers their signals, and we placed the amps to optimise the cable lengths from the control room. With so many nodes, the cost of the cabling was high: one of the aims of the design – conceived and executed by our technical manager Moreno Zampieri – was to keep this cost to a minimum. The amplifier positioning therefore ensures the least amount of cabling from the control room to all the speakers.” There are two wi-fi networks, too: one is for visitors, so they can look up whether it was George Cole or Peter Ustinov who played Flavius in that aforementioned Pharoah fable; and the other is for services, via which the audio team can access single nodes and modify channels, settings and signal sources using an iPad. This is in fact V-LAN, Yamaha’s proprietary local area network, and there is a QL3 console in the control room overlooking the central piazza. In a very modern way, it acts as an automated hub rather than a board operated by the equivalent of a FOH engineer. There is, however, a direct visual link from here to

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Composer Ennio Morricone (red shirt) tours Cinecittà

The outdoor stage has left and right clusters of RoomMatch

the largest outdoor stage, spread between two of the sound stage-cum-theatres and facing the piazza and its cooling fountains, with left and right clusters of eight RoomMatch modules each and 16 RMS215 bass enclosures. But mixing is done on the ground, iPad in hand, dodging the kids as they run in and out of the fountains like screaming otters – just your everyday sound engineering challenge in a place like this. Even the bubbles are on the Dante network, actually. This stage is also on the network, so in between the regular outdoor performances it locks into the background music system and keeps the fountain of audio flowing at all times. Riccardo Capo, general manager of Cinecittà World, has long experience in theme park management but acknowledges that this is the only one in Italy with such a focussed identity. “This was the second Cinecittà site,” he reveals, “built by the great producer Dino De Laurentiis in 1960, and many famous international films were shot here. The idea behind the park was to keep the spirit of movies alive, after the studio effectively closed. Unlike Universal, for example, we don’t base the zones on specific films – only the genres, in broader terms. It’s our interpretation of the various themes.” It was the recently deceased George Cole, by the way. pro.bose.com

P44 SEPTEMBER 2015

Installation

Wickie the Viking (he’s the chap in the longboat) is the water park’s mascot (Photo: Plopsa)

Belgium

Top of the Plops Custom Renkus-Heinz speakers provide the thunder at the 4,000sqm Plopsaqua water park in De Panne, which opened in March, reports Marc Maes

lopsaqua is the Plopsa group’s ﬁrst water park. Located near the popular Plopsaland De Panne theme park on the Belgian coast, Plopsaqua is backed by a private-public partnership, with De Panne’s local authority granting an annual dotation in turn for special rates for the seaside town’s residents. The subtropical water park has a capacity of 1,250 on its 4,000sqm site. “We didn’t want to build a traditional indoor swimming pool,” explains Plopsaqua project manager Steve van Camp. “The average indoor water parks all have a glass ceiling, palm trees, slides and wild water rivers. We opted for a closed construction, allowing us to implement and control special effects. The project’s sound design was assigned to Face; together with [lighting company] Painting with Light they took on the challenge, and the result is astonishing.” Having worked with Plopsa in its other parks (three in Belgium, one in Coevorden in the Netherlands and the Holiday Park in Hassloch, Germany), Face was the obvious partner when it came to sound reinforcement for Plopsaqua. In addition to an interactive ‘disco slide’ and the 65ft Sky Drop – “the highest point on the Flemish coast!” – Plopsa wanted to incorporate a storm pool with waves, thunder and lightning. “The thunderstorm is reproduced by a RenkusHeinz CFX81 speakers, driven by Powersoft ampliﬁers, processed by Media Matrix NION and programmed by a TiMax 2 SoundHub,” explains Steven Kemland, Face’s project division manager. “In the months before

Face used chemically treated rigging for the Renkus-Heinz speakers

the opening, we upgraded the main Plopsaland park’s complete audio system. We replaced the existing network with four Media Matrix NIONs taking on the sound control for each of the park’s thematic zones, ‘Mayaland’ and the 2,000-seater event hall. “Each individual zone, and some of the main attractions in the park have a dedicated playlist, with the Media Matrix triggering individual sound ﬁles and sound effects. The Media Matrix’s X-DAB bus feature allows us to control up to 512 channels. And, of course, the system serves as a PA system for [pre-recorded or live] safety or emergency messages for the public.” A ﬁfth Media Matrix NION was installed in the

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Plopsaqua park. “The challenge here was to create a genuine thunder storm, moving over the storm bath and exploding above the 15m x 15m rain-shower zone before softly fading away,” continues Kemland. With a constant water/air temperature of 30°C, the project required extra measures to counter the chemical reactions provoked by chlorine in the pool. Speakers, rigging and components had to be treated to withstand the harmful combination of moisture, high temperatures and chlorine. Sixteen custom chlorine-proof RenkusHeinz CFX81 speakers were ﬂown above the storm bath. “The speakers are in a special chemical ﬁnish, and so is every bolt and plug used in the rigging,” says

P46 SEPTEMBER 2015

Installation

The park has already welcomed 100,000 visitors (Photo: Plopsa)

The chlorine-proof Renkus-Heinz speakers are ﬂown over the storm bath (Photo: Face)

The MediaMatrix and Powersoft ampliﬁers are placed in one rack

Kemland. “The system complies with the strict safety parameters used in these environments. “Another problem was the acoustics: traditional acoustic ceiling panels would suffer from the chlorine. The solution was to surround the pool with a specially treated 150m-wide waterproof Showtex backdrop.” Despite their compact size the Renkus-Heinz CFX81 cabinets, with a powerful 8” woofer and 1 HF driver,

were the best choice for the project: Kemland used the SoundHub to create the thunderstorm effect and its roll-out across the 16 speakers. “Instead of steering the sound over individual speakers, the TiMax uses the full configuration, creating a realistic surround effect of a tropical storm,” he says. “Stijn Vermeiren, Face’s project engineer, had a difficult task to fulfil [Plopsa’s vision for] the concept, but he did!” The speakers were powered by Powersoft Ottocanali 4K4 DSP+D amplifiers. “The big advantage of these eight-channel amplifiers is their compact size and that they have the Dante protocol on board,” says Kemland, adding that Face also has responsibility for maintenance for all of the Plopsa parks. “And with both the MediaMatrix NION and the TiMax using Dante as well, we have full control over the whole chain. A Danteenabled special effects PC records the show with MOTU

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Digital Performer software; the signal is then routed, using Dante, via the NION, to the ampliﬁer,” Plopsaqua’s initial visitor target of 250,000 per year was modest: almost 100,000 people came to experience the park within three months of its opening, and plans are now underway to open a Plopsa ‘Aquapark’ in the Plopsa Holiday Park in Hassloch, Germany. “This project is the result of years of experience and a professional approach, making this thematic water park one of kind,” concludes Van Camp. www.plopsa.be www.face.be www.outboard.co.uk www.peaveycommercialaudio.com www.powersoft-audio.com www.renkus-heinz.com

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DP7 www.audixusa.com 503.682.6933 Photo of Stephanie Snyder, Deer Park Avenue

P48 SEPTEMBER 2015

Installation

The 1800-seat SI-Centrum Stuttgart is host to a new version of the musical Chicago

Germany

That’s entertainment Stage Entertainment’s Andreas Hammerich and Michel Weber commissioned an “impressive” all-KV2 system for Stuttgart’s SI-Centrum theatre

fter being impressed by demos of KV2 centre and stage infills and multiple EX6 enclosures for Audio systems at Prolight + Sound in stage monitoring and frontfills. April, Andreas Hammerich and Michel The full system comprised four ESR215s – each Weber, theatrical sound coordinators for consisting of two front-loaded 15“ speakers with an German production company Stage Entertainment, 8” midrange and 3” compression driver, driven by an began discussions with award-winning sound designers ESR3000 amp incorporating all amplification, EQ and Rick Clarke, John Shivers and David Patridge about the filtering – flown in an upper and lower pair left and right possibility of implementing KV2 sound reinforcement of the main auditorium; two double 15“ subwoofers (an into its forthcoming shows. EX2.5 Active and ES2.6 slave were flown centrally); four An opportunity arose at the modern SI-Centrum Active EX12s flown either side of the subs as downfills Stuttgart, an 1800-plus-seat venue opposite the to cover the front-central rows; and five ESD6s used Apollo Theatre, which required sound design for a new across the front of stage for frontfills, driven by an production of the musical Chicago. The brief was to ESP2000. design a new sound system that could deliver clear and “The results of our cooperation are impressive,” says concise dialogue combined with dynamic orchestration. “My focus was to achieve consistent and transparent coverage of the whole theatre so the sound appeared to becoming directly from the stage, not the PA,” explains Andy Austin-Brown, KV2 Audio’s technical projects director, who assisted in designing the system. “It needed especially to perform adequately with low-level signals, delivering them clearly to every seat in the house.” Austin-Brown implemented KV2 Audio’s The SI-Centrum has been equipped with a KV2 ESR215 full-range theatre ESR215 full-range theatre solution, solution, enhanced by ES2.6 subwoofers, EX12 fills and EX6 stage monitoring enhanced by ES2.6 subwoofers, EX12

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Andreas Hammerich. “We received nothing but positive feedback from the official opening night, and I’d like to thank all concerned.” www.kv2audio.com www.stage-entertainment.de

John Shivers was given the chance to experience the Royal Alexander Theatre Toronto’s newly installed ESR-series system for its production of Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Kinky Boots, running until 8 November. “I am really impressed with the overall sound quality produced by the ESR215,” comments Shivers. “The sound is just fantastic, with vocals sounding natural and with excellent clarity. The excellent performances from the actors on stage and the musicians in the pit make for a sound that is nothing less than spectacular.”

P50 SEPTEMBER 2015

Installation

Dante on up the Kaiser Church & Sound gave Berlin’s Gedächtniskirche a fully networked Symetrix-centred audio overhaul

he Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiswer-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) is a well-known Protestant church and a landmark of west Berlin. Built in the 1890s, it was badly damaged during bombing raids in 1943 and rebuilt and completed in 1963. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and the ground ﬂoor transformed into a memorial hall, giving a unique appearance nicknamed the ‘hollow tooth’ by locals, while day-to-day worship activities take place in glass-panelled buildings on either side, which feature over 21,000 stained-glass tiles. As the 1,000-seater church is often used for concerts and recitals alongside regular worship services, the building management committee were acutely aware of the archaic audio system’s pitfalls and knew that required speech intelligibility levels

were not being met. Given that the building hosts many foreign visitors and dignitaries, the audio system was a priority for renewal. The need for this was especially noticeable during the changeover between service types, which regularly exceeded the allocated 20-minute period. To deliver a solution, the church brought on Rainer Zincke, the owner of Berlinbased systems integrator Church & Sound, who has significant experience in pro-audio system design for acoustically and aesthetically challenging spaces such as houses of worship. Zincke specified a modern line-array loudspeaker system with digital beam-steering capabilities in the form of Fohhn Lfi 450 column units powered by Fohhn DSP-equipped system amplifiers. A Fohhn network bridge, installed to handle the monitoring and management of the digitally steerable loudspeakers,

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is controlled by serial output strings from a Symetrix SymNet Radius 12x8 DSP. The network bridge recalls specific presets from the Fohhn amplifiers and matches them to the varying acoustical requirements of each specific event. To ensure user-intuitiveness, all controls demands are handled through the SymNet Radius 12x8 DSP via a rack-mounted Axiomtek GOT 5100T-830 10.4” touchscreen running Symetrix’s Windows-based SymVue GUI application. For redundancy and more concise control options a set of hardware remotes, including Symetrix ARC-SW4e and ARC-K1e units, are provided around the building and mounted into single-gang EU wall sockets. Programmed by Riccardo Pusch with support from Trius Audio’s Udo Stoof, the SymNet Radius 12x8 handles site-wide zoning, level control, preset selection and system management. Due to Symetrix’s

P51 SEPTEMBER 2015

support for Audinate’s Dante media networking technology, Zincke also selected other Dantesupporting components for the system – including an Allen & Heath GLD 80 for live events, such as gospel recitals, and Shure ULX-D handheld and bodypack systems – alongside non-networked products such as various AUDIX M-series condenser microphones. Because of the vast number of inputs required for the church, Church & Sound staff opted to expand the pre-determined I/O count of SymNet Radius 12x8 by adding input and output expansion devices including SymNet xIn 12 and xOut 12, which offer ﬂexibility for the system to grow and be added to should the need arise. When a live event preset is triggered, inputs from the SymNet xIn 12 are switched from being routed to the SymNet Radius 12x8 DSP and are sent

The 120-year-old church’s ‘hollow tooth’ was badly damaged by Allied bombs in 1943

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instead to the GLD 80 where they can be mixed by a duty engineer. The solution has proved to work very well for the venue, dramatically reducing changeover time and increasing efficiency. “[SymNet] required a very low learning curve and delivers signiﬁcant capabilities with over 600 virtual DSP options to choose from,” comments Zincke. “For us, an important feature was that the SymVue GUI is included completely free and delivers tailored remote control options for easy end-user operation, saving additional costs normally required for third-party control systems.” www.church-and-sound.com www.fohhn.com www.gedaechtniskirche-berlin.de www.symetrix.co

P52 SEPTEMBER 2015

Feature: Stadiums

Baku Olympic Stadium, which hosted the recent European Games

Making a song and dance about stadiums Increasingly demanding technical expectations and a busy calendar of major sporting events have helped to keep the stadium market busy these past few years. But to what extent can the sector be considered a pace-setter for innovation when it comes to audio, asks David Davies

f one was to compile a list of the 100 most important public buildings of modern times, then it is a fair guess that at least a fifth of these would be stadiums or arenas. Moreover, to think about this portion of construction would also be to paint a portrait of the contemporary sporting calendar, with the Fifa World Cup and the Olympics among the tournaments to have prompted both new-builds and refurbishments. Whatever your views on the long-term ‘legacy’ of global sports gatherings, these events have certainly resulted in some architecturally-striking and technologically-advanced stadiums – from the Olympic Stadium in London built ahead of the 2012 Olympics to the five new stadiums established in Brazil ahead of the 2014 Fifa World Cup, as well as the many facilities upgraded ahead of major tournaments, such as the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, which featured in the 2010 World Cup. Many sporting organisations, including Fifa and the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa), have extensive technical requirements that play a fundamental role in shaping the construction of new venues, while standards such as EN54 for fire detection and fire alarm operation are also increasingly critical. But designers and consultants are also seeking to enhance stadiums in numerous other ways – and many

of these pivot around sound-related improvements.

Raising standards All suppliers who spoke to PSNEurope confirmed that there has lately been a general raising of audio specification in both new-builds and refurbs, with the multipurpose nature of many contemporary venues helping to determine system selection. “The demand is increasingly oriented towards versatile, high-performance systems,” confirms Antonio Ferrari, market manager, audio contractor and director of the engineering support group at RCF. “Customers’ requirements often include a good acoustic performance both for entertainment and [emergency] paging. The diffusion of high-quality music and announcements plays a key role, along with the increasing importance of having systems be compliant with European norms for emergency paging.” Ferrari confirms that Fifa and Uefa requirements are becoming “more and more popular even when the stadiums will probably not host the World Cup or the Champions League, because they are perceived as marks of top level acoustic performance.” Over at Lab.gruppen, product engineering manager Håkan Gustafsson and product research manager Klas Dalbjorn acknowledge what they describe as

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The demand for new audio systems bound for installation in stadiums has increased dramatically in the last one-and-a-half to two years

Stuart Schatz, Bosch Security Systems

P53 SEPTEMBER 2015

“an increased demand for higher SPL and higher audio quality at stadiums. To lift the total experience for the audience, more music and show elements are integrated into the sports event. Sponsors also demand good clarity and impressive delivery of their content.” It is true to say that this month’s most important sporting event, the Rugby World Cup – which commences on 18 September and runs through until the end of October – has not generated any brand-new venues. But a quick glance at the calendar for the next few years – Euro 2016 alone is generating four fresh stadiums (in Lille, Nice, Lyons and Bordeaux) and ﬁve renovated ones (in Marseille, Paris, Saint-Etienne, Lens and Toulouse) – suggests that there will be plenty to keep suppliers and consultants busy. No wonder, then, that Bosch Security Systems applications engineer Stuart Schatz surveys the overall market and reports that “the demand for new audio systems bound for installation in stadiums has increased dramatically in the last one-and-a-half to two years”.

Solution selection Although systems chosen for stadiums are the subject of considerable variation, the desire for quality and consistency is seemingly leading some venues to install large amounts of equipment from a select number of respected vendors. Take, for example, the 2014 Fifa World Cup, where eight of the major venues in the 12 host cities featured audio solutions from the Harman family. “From inception through delivery, each component in our family of brands is designed to provide a sophisticated, integrated and affordable audio solution,” remarked Robert Klesser, national sales manager, install and cinema, at Harman Brazil, at the time. By way of illustration, he pointed to an overall spec list across venues that included Harman’s IDX communication systems, AKG microphones, BSS signal processing, Crown ampliﬁers, Soundcraft digital consoles and JBL loudspeakers, while a large number of Studer Vista consoles were used for the broadcasting of the event. Not surprisingly, speaker design receives a particularly high level of scrutiny. The streamlining of cabling requirements, ease of installation and ability to withstand the vagaries of the weather are the requirements that tend to be universal. Although able to provide both passive and active systems, RCF has “recently provided an increasing number of self-powered systems; they combine very good performance and exceptionally easy wiring”, says Ferrari. “For example, we have created a range of active solutions for ﬁxed-install applications that are customised both in their mechanical parts – in order to simplify installation, maintenance and improve weatherresistance – and in the electrical/electronic ones. Our engineers have developed dedicated electronics that allow detailed monitoring and precise control of each

new-look mile hiGH stadium denver features 100+ Lab.gruppen amplifiers A recent audio overhaul at the Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, led to the extensive specification of Lab.gruppen amplifiers and JBL loudspeakers. The installation was carried out by Parsons Electric, working to a system design by Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams (WJHW). The upgrade was to include a retrofit of the stadium’s scoreboard loudspeakers, as well as wholesale changes to the bowl loudspeakers. Approximately 600 loudspeakers feature throughout the main stadium seating bowl: mounted underneath decks, to structures that hold lighting, to the bottom of the scoreboard, and on top of the scoreboard. Mark Graham from WJHW worked with EAE and JBL to produce a loudspeaker with a highquality 100V, 500W transformer, resulting in the production of some custom JBL WRX low-frequency loudspeakers. Instead of just a single horn and LF driver, they sport one LF transducer and two HF drivers to cover the extra distance between the loudspeaker spacing entailed in the project. There are very few available amps that can power

speaker system down to each single component (ie transducer, power ampliﬁer, power supply, wiring), combining all information on a unique platform, integrated in the RCF RDNet control system for an easier overview.” Over at Bosch Security Systems, however, there is a feeling that demand for passive speakers remains signiﬁcantly higher than that for active designs. “At least here in the USA, it seems as though contractors or

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four of those cabinets at 500W a piece, hence the selection of Lab.gruppen PLM series four-channel amplifiers. In total, 100 PLM 10000K and 30 PLM 20000K units were specified. The project also called for a DSP platform to be available on game days. Lab.gruppen and QSC’s previous collaboration to produce script allowing the Q-Sys networked audio solution to monitor all key functions of the Lab.gruppen system proved to be crucial in this case. As a result, Lab.gruppen amplifiers are able to interface with other third-party software for the Q-Sys system so operators can monitor system status and health, use it to control volume and mute unused areas of the stadium. In Denver, amplifiers are deployed in four specific rooms, one in each quadrant of the stadium. The breakout boxes on the Q-Sys system run AES digital audio into the Lab.gruppen PLMs, while an analogue back-up is in place for unlikely scenarios where some major network failure or another fault occurs on the digital side. In such instances, the amp would automatically switch to the analogue feed.

integrators don’t want the risk of getting up to the arrays if the amplifier module fails,” says Schatz. His Bosch colleague, director of marketing application design Oliver Sahm, concurs: “Also, in all other regions known to me, self-powered loudspeakers don’t play any major role. Arguments might be weather resistance, accessibility for service and maintenance, redundancy concepts with entangled wiring between amplifier racks and loudspeakers, and concepts with spare amplifiers

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Feature: Stadiums

Westfalenstadion in Dortmund features 14 custom RCF TTL 33A line-array units

in racks to take over in case of broken regular working ampliﬁers.”

Networked nation Given that stadiums are often seen not only as benchmarks for technical quality, but also as a representation of an individual nation’s own status on the world stage, it is hardly surprising that they are frequently the venue for the deployment of some of the very latest technologies. Accordingly, networked audio – as well as tighter integration with other building systems, including IT – continues to ascend the stadium shopping list. For Lab.gruppen, Gustafsson and Dalbjorn say that they “deﬁnitely see a high demand for integration both on signal distribution, control and monitoring. Our D Series [of ampliﬁers] has the slogan ‘Integration Superpower’ because it accommodates a wide range of audio connectivity and integration with virtually any audio matrix or control software through its open thirdparty protocol and dedicated models for Biamp Tesira integration.” Historically, there has been plenty of CobraNet to be found in arenas and stadiums worldwide, but now it seems that Audinate’s Dante media networking solution is assuming the status of go-to technology. “Digital audio and control networks as well as video networking have become more and more important,” observes Sahm. “Dante seems to be the favourite audio standard. CobraNet is not asked for any more for new and major installs.” Schatz adds: “The need for connectivity hasn’t

changed the approach of the loudspeaker system, but it has meant involving the networking and IT teams a lot earlier in the process to work through cabling, and whether or not we use the building’s network or create our own.” Indeed, anecdotal evidence related to PSNEurope by its regular consultancy contacts indicates that audio experts are now generally being brought onto such projects at the earliest stages, in order to engage in constructive dialogue with architects, IT chiefs and other stakeholders. Audio (and video) might once have been regarded as an afterthought – but not any more.

Fan engagement With project leaders aware of the contribution to be made by high-quality AV systems, it seems inevitable that the future will bring additional calls for bespoke solutions. Certainly, there are plenty of recent examples of customisation from our featured suppliers – just consider RCF’s involvement in the Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan, which hosted the European Games earlier this summer. As Ferrari observes, the company supplied no fewer than 270 specially adapted TTL55-A active speakers, chosen for their vocal clarity and high SPL. “All cabinets are weatherproofed and were customised with metal backbones and internal supports for additional safety, to make sure that the line array’s weight is safely supported by the steel structure and not just by the cabinets’ marine plywood. Each single cluster is easily accessible thanks to independent motors, capable of lowering the frame at the tribune level. [In addition],

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all modules are equipped with a sophisticated faultmonitoring board, while reporting occurs through the RD Net control system.” The allure of remote system monitoring and its ability to minimise sometimes problematic work-at-height doesn’t need to be unpicked. But its appeal is only likely to grow as stadium systems become evermore tightly integrated. Add in the huge upswing in mobile connectivity that will be required for major sporting and music events as promoters, sponsors and advertisers work to deepen fan engagement, and it becomes clear that the stadium of the future will be an increasingly complex place – and one in which the ﬂexibility and reliability of systems is destined to be at a premium. www.bosch.com www.harmanpro.com www.labgruppen.com www.rcf.it

KEY POINTS: • Major sports events – including the Olympics, Uefa Euro football championships and Fifa World Cup – have helped to keep demand for new stadium systems at a healthy level •Dante-based networking is proving to be increasingly popular, while some observers point to a growth in demand for self-powered speakers • An increasing amount of discussion is taking place between architects, IT personnel and AV specialists at the earliest stages of a new-build or refurb

139

AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK J ACOB J AVITS C ENTER CONFERENCE: OCT 29 – NOV 1, 2015 EXHIBITS: OCT 30 – NOV 1, 2015

If It’s About LIVE SOUND, It’s At AES139! LIVE SOUND EXPO comes to New York City this fall at the 139th AES Convention. Whether you are in the hot seat as FOH engineer mixing to a crowd of thousands, in an intimate local club mixing your favorite band, or handling the audio for a house-of-worship facility, the upcoming AES139 Convention in New York City is your one source for all things audio. With three days of exhibits, the Live Sound Track, and the Live Sound Expo, plus four days of workshops, technical papers and program content tailored to the current audio and communications landscape, once again, the AES Convention will be THE audio event of the year and cannot be missed. Our Live Sound Expo at the 139th Convention offers expert advice for the broad spectrum of live sound engineers (some 25% of Convention attendees) with an emphasis on the practical, bringing professionals with decades of experience to the stage to inspire and educate attendees.

AES139 Live Sound Expo itinerary and areas of focus: , Friday, October 30 – Broadway/Theater , Saturday, October 31 – Worship & Install , Sunday, November 1 – Touring Admission to the Live Sound Expo is included with your FREE Exhibits-Plus advance registration. The Live Sound Expo sponsors are:

For AES sponsor opportunities contact Graham Kirk: graham.kirk@aes.org

If It’s About AUDIO, It’s At AES! For more information visit our website at:

www.aesconvention.com/139

P57

Please send all contributions for Hither & Dither to drobinson@nbmedia.com

SEPTEMBER 2015

Hither & juror Fairﬁeld Halls and giant balls, through the eyes of PSNEurope

While the editor’s been on jury service in Croydon, he took in the local sights, oh yes. Here’s the legendary Fairﬁeld Halls: Tangerine Dream thrilled the likes of producer Flood there in the mid-70s. Now all we have to look forward to is Peppa Pig and the Hoff. Sigh

Steve Connolly ﬁnally leaves NewBay after 10 years, several of which he served on PSNEurope… cheers, mate – you’ll be missed!

Soundcraft founders Phil Dudderidge (left) and Graham Blyth, 42 years after starting that console business, at Phil’s family-curated Chillstock last month

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What could possibly link these three pictures, taken at the Wilderness and Roskilde Festivals this summer?

P58 SEPTEMBER 2015

Backtalk

Morten Büchert Diplomas and diplomacy with Roskilde’s sound policeman. By Dave Robinson

aking a living from music creation and audio engineering “since the age of 18”, Morten Büchert’s day job is to teach students at the Royal Academy of Music and the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen. But each year, he serves a critical role as the principal audio consultant for the ‘Danish Glastonbury’, Roskilde – a seven-day, multistage international festival, run for charity since 1972 and held on a purpose-built showground 35km west of the capital.

How companies approach the design phase, how they hang the speakers… Roskilde is based on volunteer work and over the last 15 years there has been a whole professionalisation of the business. [One] focus here has been to control the sound level, to monitor sound pressure levels at festivals. When I came onboard in 2003, there were no level regulations from the government. With bigger PA companies comes a bigger responsibility, both for audiences and the neighbours. We came up with a two-year plan, with punctuated measurements ﬁve times per show, with every PA company instructed to take notes of the sound level. After those two years, we enforced a regulation based on those measurements to 103dB Leq over 15 minutes – my friend Jacob Navne invented the measurement programme 10EaZy, based on the European Directive 10EC, as part of his engineering diploma on that project. (Editor’s note: SG Audio Aps’ 10EaZy package has become a European standard for accurate SPL monitoring across Europe.)

and ‘start the dialogue’.

You are the ‘sound policeman’, it would be fair to say... but you’re not ‘the bad guy’?

103: That’s a relatively high level!

What is the itch that you just can’t scratch?

[Pause] I don’t have any jurisdiction as to tell people what to do. I can challenge the festival, the PA companies and the designers on their decisions – and my approach could be much more mathematical, using physics and so on – but I use dialogue [with] the engineers and designers. You could call me a policeman… you could call me a friend.

We are lucky because for Roskilde, bands and engineers come from all over the planet, where they have more restrictions; like in Switzerland, where rules that come with ﬁnes. We tell them, ‘yesterday you could play 96, today you can play 103’; they take it as a gift. We don’t have limiters at the show!

It’s an old pet peeve of mine: the acoustics. You can have a good sounding system but still a bad sounding room. The festival needs to deliver on that. So on some of the stages, there are more speakers in the ceiling, or we’ve applied rock wool behind stages to dampen the sound, but there’s always something.

I feel warmer already! Maybe you’re a diplomat too?

What do you do building up to a festival?

Doesn’t technology make your job easier?

I’m involved with the heads of audio and production. Wwe say, ‘How was it last year? What do we want to achieve this year? What’s new, are the tents different?’ So at the Avalon stage we have a Meyer LYON system, and we have to adjust to that, dispersion angles and coverage etc. I help them ﬁgure out what to do. Then the PA companies deliver the ﬁnal system to me – and I could do a lot of measurements based on physics – but I see myself as a representative of the audience, so when serving music the PA must sound reasonable – power and coverage – so I put on some music

Yes if you use it to your advantage. The more technology that comes out, the music doesn’t always get better. You might have bands that bring out an X32 console which has a lot of features but costs nothing: playing that on a set of speakers that cost a couple of million [krone, or £200,000] there’s something there that doesn’t add up. But I don’t know how to alter that, because lower prices give opportunity to a lot more talent. www.mortenbuchert.com www.roskilde-festival.dk

How long have you been working with the festival, Morten? For 15 years. I’m not inﬂuenced by any company; I’m freelance. It’s important to be non-partisan. I have a huge depth of knowledge [because of my teaching] but I don’t know every manufacturer, so I use my ears to guide the festival on what sort of brands and PA companies they should hire. The acoustics is important to me.

Everything everybody out here does has to serve the music. Decisions, cables, preamps, whatever; it has to serve the music. My approach to guiding festivals and PA companies is to make sure the framework is right, it is up to the highest standard and [that the audience] realise the vision and intention of the music from the artist’s point of view.

When you say ‘guiding’ in terms of equipment, to what level?

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You’re not walking around with an NTI Audio Minilyser taking readings? My ears are my main tool, and I trust my ears. I know a lot of sound consultants use a lot of measurements; they adhere to a different strategy. My approach is much more human. I believe that raises the quality of the shows in general.

Do you have the proverbial curmudgeon on the periphery who phones and complains every year? [Laughs] When we had the proactive initiative a few years ago, we tried to do something about sound levels before someone else did it! Fifteen years ago it was point source not line arrays, so the contribution to the neighbourhood was a lot more diffuse and non-linear, with much more low end… now the reactions from neighbours are, oh, it’s just like a clock radio turned all the way down, and they much prefer that.

The w ireless and mo st o f capturing

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