While major audio brands have decided not to exhibit at Prolight + Sound 2020 in Frankfurt, Elation Professional confirms his presence.
No message but a positive claim for our industry clearly impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak from the American brand Elation. More to come…
Following the announcement that Prolight + Sound 2020 will be postponed to late May, L-Acoustics has decided not to exhibit at the fair this year.
Following the announcement that Prolight + Sound 2020 will be postponed to late May, we regret that the proposed dates do not allow us to ensure a quality experience for our clients, partners and visitors. L-Acoustics has therefore decided not to exhibit at the fair this year.
We wish the Prolight team the very best and will communicate soon about upcoming events and meeting opportunities.
The L-Acoustics Team
Following the postponement of this year’s Prolight + Sound exhibition, due to the spread of Covid-19, Yamaha and NEXO have taken the decision not to exhibit during the show’s revised dates.
Jean Mullor
Nils-Peter Keller
In a joint statement Nils-Peter Keller, Senior Director Pro Audio & AV Group, Yamaha Music Europe GmbH and NEXO CEO Jean Mullor have said, “Both Yamaha and NEXO fully understand the decision by Messe Frankfurt to postpone this year’s Prolight + Sound show. The spread of Covid-19 is a complex, challenging and evolving situation and our primary consideration is for the welfare of both show visitors and event staff.
“As two of the leading brands in the professional audio industry, many staff and customers of both companies will be gearing up for the busy outdoor festival season during the show’s revised dates at the end of May. Therefore, it is with regret that we have now decided not to exhibit at Prolight + Sound 2020.
“Both Yamaha and NEXO are naturally very disappointed that we will not be present at the show this year and we look forward to an opportunity to return in 2021.”
A pair of DiGiCo SD5 consoles handled front-of-house mixing for the Latina-American Super Bowl performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, while two Quantum 7 desks in monitor world were plenty for the 150-plus outputs for the singers, musicians and dancers on stage.
A view of Hard Rock Stadium from behind the primary SD5 FOH console.
Super Bowl LIV was a truly Latina-American event: Bronx-born Jennifer Lopez headlined the halftime show and Columbia native but Miami Beach resident Shakira shared the main stage, while New Mexico native Demi Lovato sang the National Anthem. The 12-minute extravaganza, watched by over 100 million people, garnered rave reviews for its showmanship but also drew plenty of kudos for its sound.
A pair of DiGiCo SD5 consoles at front of house and a pair of DiGiCo Quantum 7 desks at monitors were the crown jewels atop a custom JBL sound system, comprising 18 1,500-pound carts on the field and 14 flown line arrays. All of the gear was designed and brought in by ATK Audiotek, which has been the halftime event’s sound-reinforcement provider for nearly two-dozen Super Bowls now.
Alex Guessard at FOH facing the pair of trusty SD5s.
“For me, the SD5 is still the fastest-workflow console ever,” says ATK Audiotek Project Manager Alex Guessard, who also mixed the live sound for the show—alongside the Rolling Stones’ longtime FOH engineer, Dave Natale and designed the entire sound system, which was used for the pre- and post-game entertainment, as well as the halftime show.
“I set the two SD5s up so that we had mirror images of both the worksurface and one console as the A engine, so in the unlikely event that we had a failure on one console, the other was ready to run seamlessly.” Needless to say, there was no need to take advantage of that redundancy.
What the show did leverage, however, was the SD5’s superb input capacity, which Guessard says managed the complex show’s 60-plus input channels, including vocals, instruments and Pro Tools outputs, with ease: “It was flawless, and the SD5 is so easy to configure.
For instance, I used the assignment buttons on the left of the screen to toggle between the head amp, filters and auxiliary, and the moves were quick and easy under pressure.”
The event’s massive Dante network was “fed from the MADI on the consoles, and signals were eventually routed via AES to the amplifiers,” Guessard explains. Each console also had two DiGiCo SD-Racks of its own, allowing them to operate independently.
The monitor world
Over in monitor world, Tom Pesa and the monitor crew had to manage upwards of 150 wireless beltpacks for vocalists, musicians and dancers. He also used two consoles, both of which were Quantum 7 desks. They began working on the show at two rehearsal locations one offsite and one onsite which necessitated the need for two consoles to be available as the complex production came together. Once the show was ready, Pesa, like Guessard, kept the second desk online as a backup.
“Instead of having the B engine as the backup on one console, we’d have an entire second console as our mirrored B engine,” explains Pesa, who was working his 24th Super Bowl halftime show. “It’s overkill, but it’s also the Super Bowl.”
The output of the console went to a combination of in-ear monitors 120 of them for dancers alone, who rely on them for click tracks and cues and to a dozen ATK Audiotek LM3 wedges around the stage. Pesa says the Quantum 7 managed all of that easily, using only onboard processing.
ATK Audiotek’s pair of Quantum 7 desks at Super Bowl’s monitor position. The ultimate redundancy !
“I lean heavily on DiGiCo’s onboard processing; I almost never need external processing, especially since Quantum came along,” he says. “That gives me so many onboard options for limiters, compressors and EQ, and I can easily customize each snapshot for each artist as each pass goes by. There’s so much available to let you make each artist sound exactly the way you want them to. It’s all just there at your fingertips.”
The Quantum 7’s assignability was also called upon for this show, as Pesa was able to set up an entire separate section of the console customized for Ramon Morales, Shakira’s longtime monitor mixer. “I could literally create an entire section for him with Shakira’s inputs for vocal channels and effects returns, and any other control group needed to lay down as a VCA to control her Pro Tools level, all in one bank,” he explains.
“So I could do what I needed to on my side of the console and Ramon could have everything he needed laid out right there in front of him. The Quantum is a big leap forward and I’m really impressed with how many new features there are with the new firmware, like Mustard. The console just keeps getting better.”
Monitor engineer Tom Pesa at one of the two DiGiCo Quantum 7 monitor consoles. Without a doubt a trusty technician with 24 Halftime shows in pocket.
Super Bowl’s halftime shows are a marvel of tightly packed bombast on a precision schedule that a field marshal would admire. “It’s all over so quickly,” recalls Guessard, who was working on his third Super Bowl halftime event.
“We had six minutes to get ready as the football players were leaving the field and the stage was coming together, then a 12-minute show, then six minutes to get ready before the teams came back.
It’s a huge adrenaline rush no matter how many times you’ve done it, and it takes an insane amount of coordination. You need the tools you’re using to be perfect, and that’s what the DiGiCo consoles are perfect.”
For more details visit Super Bowl LIV, on ATK Audiotek and on DiGiCo website
In this latest edition of the ISE show hosted in Amsterdam, Netgear, a well-known brand of Wi-Fi access points or other powerline adapters, was on the show floor represented by its professional division.
The Netgear team shared a stand with other manufacturers, members of the Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) alliance, the organization behind the solution. If you’ve never heard about it, SDVoE is a suite of protocols implemented and available in compliant devices, allowing users to transmit uncompressed video streams over IP networks in an easy way. The hardware offers connection, transmission and reception points, but the routing of the video stream is software only, which offers greater flexibility to the users.
The SDVoE alliance announces zero latency for the transmission of the video streams within the IP network, and promises unrivaled performances when it comes to many video streams, thereby simplifying the wiring and the number of devices in the video chain. Furthermore, a fully IP based video system reduces the number of conversions required for long distances and site interconnections.
The SDVoE protocol allows the transport of an uncompressed video stream using a 10Gbps link. It is quite easy to understand that if you wish to transport several dozen of video streams on the same network, the size of the backbone (the network infrastructure) becomes a key element.
The Netgear M4300 switch series, already available on the market, offers a wide range of models, with 10Gbps ports on RJ45 connectors or 40Gbps ports on QSFP+ connectors. But when the number of video streams requires a more powerful backbone, very high capacity core switches become the only choice. This is why Netgear, one of the founding members of the SDVoE alliance, introduced at ISE their new M4500 switches series, in complement of the existing M4300 series.
These switches provide the necessary processing power when several hundred Gigabit of bandwidth are required for the latency free transport of video streams. Directly inspired by Netgear’s data center switch design, these switches are preconfigured for an easy interconnection with other SDVoE compliant equipment, but the devices can be used for other audiovisual applications as well.
The M4500-32C model offers 32 100Gbps ports.
The M4500-48XF8C model offers 48 x 10/25Gbps ports, and 8 x 100Gbps ports.
The two models introduced at the show, respectively M4500-48XF8C and M4500 32C, will be used to interconnect the M4300 switch series as access switches, where SDVoE video encoder/decoder will be connected via network cables. 40Gbps links will be used between the M4300 and M4500 switches to create high speed links.
The M4500-48XF8C can also be used to directly connect video converters via a 10Gbps or 25Gbps fiber optic link. In this specific case, the device will be used as an access switch, and the M4500 32C model will be used as a core switch, creating 100 Gbps links between the two devices, thus making it possible to connect up to 640 devices on the same network
On the SDVoE stand, Laurant Masia, director of product line management, explained during a 30-minute session this type of applications. The presentation revolved around three main application axes:
– A stack-based solution: The switches are combined with each other and become, from a user point of view, a single switch, with high-speed links between the switches, to simplify management.
– An aggregated link-based solution: several links between two switches are combined together to create a single very high capacity link. For those used to 1Gbps networks, this technology offers bandwidth between switches that can make your head spinning!
– A VLAN based solution (virtual networks within the physical network). Some of the links between transmitters and receivers are placed in virtual networks, to provide interference free communication between the devices which are included in the same virtual network (see illustration below).
When looking at the announced bandwidth, it is obvious that these switches will be able to cope with large-scale video over IP applications.
The VLAN technology used to transport SDVoE video streams (extract from Laurent Masia’s presentation). The example above represents isolated links of 4x100Gbps between the access switches and the core switch!
The SDVoE protocol will also be able to rely on such network architectures to offer unlimited video matrix possibilities. As an example, some of video streams might be sent to several destinations. If you are not familiar with network technology, this communication method is called Multicast, a one to many communication scheme, where the destination specifically request the video stream it wants to receive.
Multicast is based on a mechanism which did not take such bandwidth into account when it was first proposed (1986). Named IGMP snooping, this solution allows multicast streams to be sent to those who have requested it. Unfortunately, and in some specific cases, certain equipment or certain links may be completely flooded by streams they would not have requested.
To overcome this problem, subnets can be created, and routed to each other via PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast) technology. However, the use of this technology requires in-depth knowledge in network architectures and does not always offer the expected result. But wait, Netgear offers now a new version of IGMP, simply called IGMP +.
This proprietary solution allows these constraints to be freed, and hundreds of AV equipment to be interconnected, by exempting users from using PIM technology, while using already known IGMP techniques throughout the AV over IP network. For those who have already faced this kind of problem, IGMP + is a real step forward for the simplification of audiovisual networks.
With this new range of switches, Netgear demonstrates its desire to position itself as a key player in the AV over IP networks. According to Laurent Masia, Netgear will present new models of switches at the Infocomm 2020 show, so stay tuned!
More info on the Netgear’s website
1988. I attend the Grand Rex in Paris at the screening of The Big Blue, and like the whole audience in the room, I come out conquered, possessed by the movie story but above all its music, in such close connection with the images on the screen. 30 years later, the major work of the Luc Besson & Eric Serra team is screened again in a film concert format. Nothing has changed, but everything is better.
Autumn 2017, Maxime Menelec, young and talented French sound designer, system engineer and team leader spreads the word that an event in full L-Isa is being prepared and advises us to put our Friday May 11, 2018 date in our agenda. No way to know more, we drop the song, relieved by the: “… I will call you when we are in the studio, you will understand” cleverly slipped.
The weeks go by and at the end of January, an appointment is made in a small dead end street not far from Montmartre. The doorbell rings aside an armored door. Once crossed, the decor, the smell of warm electronics and – even more – the chords that resonate leave no room for doubt. It smacks of Eric Serra indeed.
Romain seen from the back and facing a L-Isa crammed set-up in 5 + 2 extended X8 speakers.
Two key figures in the “The Big Blue celebrates its 30th anniversary” adventure come to meet us. Maxime who gives up his L-Isa configuration for a few minutes based on X8 L-Acoustics and Romain Berguin, a strategic character who, with Jean-Philippe Schevingt which we will talk about later, form the trio that Eric Serra will warmly thank a few months later on the Seine Musicale stage (in Boulogne near Paris) at the end of the screening. This was rightly done indeed. But we’ll see this later.
The work we are witnessing briefly this winter afternoon leaves us speechless. Yes, all the musical elements exist, even the session of Performer of the ol’ time, because Eric Serra has meticulously kept everything including the MidiVerb, sorry, the “Midiiiiiihhhhhhherb”, and took care a few years earlier to transfer to ProTools, the then staple multitrack.
Indeed Eric knows exactly the keyboards, effects and other tricks he used to generate these endless reverberations which got the better of sonically transparent cinema screens and big drivers with sadly academic curves in movie halls, but now everything has to be dug out, cleaned or recreated to be able to replay the soundtrack on stage at the same time as the film, all in L-Isa format. This might sound simple, but just talking about it has my eyelids falling like those of Romain and Jean-Phi who spent weeks on this task!
Ile Seguin. La Seine Musicale as seen by its side where you access RIFFX Studios. The guy on his electric unicycle is Eric Serra stretching his ideas.
To keep this low profile confidently for the producer, we have very few images of this pre-production studio, which is not the case of the second double rehearsal studio, the RIFFX on Seguin Island, integrated into the complex which includes the Grande Seine, where the screening will take place.
We meet there at the beginning of May our fine team for the work of setting up the titles with the six musicians in addition to Eric Serra who plays the bass and directs the group, a crucial step since they only joined the project two weeks before D-Day. Quite a bunch of real pros, by the way.
In the same stocking area for the percussions as well, « fragile stuff, do not touch » as the sign indicates, Seb Barbato and Max Menelec discover each movie number one at a time, as played by the 7 musicians, one guy mixing and the other one positioning audio elements and musical stems into space.
Two separate rooms are used, RIFFX1 and its 350 m² for musicians, image management, and another one for sounds with Romain Berguin and Jean-Phi Schevingt and the monitor console of Ben Rico, and RIFFX3 and its 80 m² for the mixing console by Seb Barbato and the encoding part held by Max Menelec. Between the two studios separated by a few meters, two Optocore loops do the job.
The first impression when listening to the recordings made on the different titles which are put in place one after the other, is the unusual amount of effects, mainly reverberations. Each source is reverberated. Swapping to the movie mix, in fact the CD which has been resync’ed to the film, will recalibrate our ears.
Programming, playing and mix are actually very close to the original, a requirement of Eric Serra, and you just have to look at the image that rolls on a big screen to check that the whole thing becomes totally coherent compared and on track to the memory we still have of the film as seen in a cinema.
A movie soundtrack, even more the Big Blue one, must feel at one with the image, with the story, because it got into the unconscious of a whole generation of viewers, so you can’t change anything. We will see later that all the pre-production and balancing work in a fairly healthy and damped studio, using speakers close to the studio monitor and supported by a KS28 sub, will have to be repeated during rehearsals in the final hall where an L-Isa Focus configuration will be deployed. Seb Barbato has completed some impressive job here!
A L-ISA work configuration based on the X8, an outstanding coaxial speaker only missing… a KS28. You might be tempted, but this is not that easy at home ;0) Notice in green on the screen the bar count, a crucial info that needs to be distributed to everyone at the same time as the movie.
Nevertheless, the sound in the studio is infinitely more precise, louder, the sounds are sharper, the textures more beautiful, the bass attacks beat so well with a density, a very appreciable thickness of the instruments. Seb mixes like for a concert without over-loading the global contour like crazy.
We are light years away from the blurred LFE often felt in cinema halls. The voices of the ol’time and the few sound effects find their place, if only by their weak dynamics, their very, very warm color from the original recording of dubbing tracks (the film was shot in English, Ed.) far from always successful.
SLU : Your mix and for example your kick drum have this concert color which does us good and renews the soundtrack. How do you find room for voice tracks?
Seb Barbato : This is due to the elements which all come from the new virtual machines, from the originals’ copies and from the few acoustic instruments which are treated differently. We must not forget that we are preparing a film concert, our mix cannot be exactly that of a classic feature film. Music must have a prominent role. Finally we discover step by step the mixing of this type of piece.
Seb Barbato at forefront and just behind Max « I put it here », the Master of Space ;0)
Until last week we were working on the raw songs, it is only recently that we have the film, the effects and the voice tracks, and again, when we work on our “Virtual” (the recording of the songs played by the musicians, Ed.) we don’t have the image and we get back to music alone.
We must not trust the balances of the music alone because, once the voices have been put in front by placing the PBO (instrumental music track, Ed.) a few dB lower, the reverberation levels are for example insufficient…
We close our eyes, which is a shame for movie music, in order to better understand the space offered by the L-Isa mastering which here takes on new importance by exploiting the addition of sounds generated by the 7 musicians plus some rare prerecorded loops and the many effects. Even in an 80m² studio, the switch back to stereo, in order to constantly check the conformity of large balances, seems dull, to say the least. Think about it, this is how we listen to music every day.
A break before a rehearsal allows us to question Max and Seb.
SLU : Who is behind the project and picked you up?
Seb Barbato : I was called by Max to do the mix, but they did a lot of upstream work with Romain.
Maxime Menelec : We actually launched the project with Romain. Romain is Eric Serra’s assistant and I was in his studio one day to analyze and readjust his monitoring system. We sort of became friends.
When Cyrille Sebbon, his manager and Eric presented the project to us, we proposed to take all the technical aspects in charge and setting up the team, namely Seb at FOH, Ben Rico on monitors and Jean-Philippe Schevingt for sounds re-creation. This is all produced by Gérard Drouot for whom it is also a first. And of course I thought of an L-Isa set up. The rental company is Dushow, with the contribution of a number of computers and small speakers belonging to our own Upoint company.
Max spreading all around a number of stems into L-Isa in perfect harmony with Seb. You can clearly notice on the screen the positioning over three center speakers (later on, K2), two “external” ones (Kara), two “extended” (also Kara) and at the back two surrounds (Kiva II).
SLU : I figure L-Acoustics is also on board…
Maxime Menelec : Yes they are. The kit for the encoding that took place this winter, namely the X8s except the two units that belong to us, the subs, the amplifiers and the L-Isa processor were loaned by L-Acoustics. When we presented the project to them, they were enthusiastic. Florent Bernard, Fred Bailly who took care of us a lot and even Guillaume le Nost (Development manager of L-Isa in London, Ed.) He could not come yet but we are sending him ten text messages a day! I bored him to death to get some details right.
SLU : By the way, I can see a KS28 here, where’s the second sub?
Maxime Menelec : In the bigger studio with the musicians, this SB28 is certainly cranked up to the limiters. As they work with ear monitors, I rather added them some low pressure, as this will be the case when they’ll be playing underneath the big 23 m x 10 m screen with all the speakers, including the subs, hung up behind them.
Seb : Ben adds one dB every day, and as they’ve been there since two weeks rehearsing, I guess the level is quite high by now!
The large room at RIFFX with the 7 musicians, including Eric Serra. Facing them, but not visible on this photo, Romain Berguin, Jean-Phi Schevingt and Ben Rico take good care of them.
SLU : Seb, when did you step in this venture?
Seb Barbato : In January, when I heard this would be a L-Isa operation. As I had never mixed with it, I went for thorough training to Marcoussis (L-Acoustics’HQ, Ed.) to understand the philosophy of working in multi-channel and more simply in stereo. I came with stems from my concerts and spent an entire day playing in their listening room.
Maxime Menelec : As at today this studio has changed its Kara for Syva et Syva Low models.
Seb : This was very useful because you have to think of your mix differently to get the most out of the resources in front of you.
SLU : And why choosing DiGiCo and the SD7 ?
Seb Barbato : It was inevitable given the resources required, the use of the Optocore loop, the fact that Ben at monitors has the same and that we both have Waves servers preprogrammed by Romain. The latter did a crazy job since he recreated us with identical copies of the famous reverberations of the original Big Blue soundtrack without needing to bring out the old Midiverb from the dust. We would never have had the time to research and program all these algorithms for ourselves. He created 10 reverbs for us in 60 snapshots, all different, matching the music vibes. Even without good math, this is not far from 600 presets!
SLU : Apparently you too have made the choice to delegate the matrixing and spatialization parts to a third person …
The Seb et Max duet at full work.
Seb Barbato : It’s easier and the DiGiCo & L-Acoustics plug arrived last week. Installing it involves removing the Waves reverberations from the console although they are perfectly encoded. We didn’t take the risk.
In addition we have a patch with 130 inputs in the desk and we reduce that to 96 to attack the processor which cannot not take more channels. We agreed on the fact that Max pre-places the sources and I add my own magic into the console. We know each other very well and we hear the same thing. As a single engineer working on a full SD7, you cannot take over the management of L-Isa.
SLU : Even if one day there’s a perfect merge of L-Isa in all the mixing consoles?
Maxime Menelec : The complexity of the configuration that we have set up makes it impossible to work alone. We are not going out thru the post-fader direct outputs, we had to go through the solution of the 96 aux busses, which means that for each title we must route the 130 tracks, or more, in it…
Seb Barbato : L-Isa forces you, in the good sense of the term, to seek how to exploit this space, this immersion at your disposal, and this is true for each track, while keeping the main sources in the same place.
SLU : But it is quite possible that you will have to rectify all or part of it when you listen with a screen, a K2 / Kara / Kiva II system much wider open and in a large hall…
Seb Barbato : Ahh it’s clear that everything will change. I left a lot of things off to go fast. We know what happens between a rehearsal place and a tour in stereo, we will find out here with an L-Isa deployment placed behind a screen, even microperforated!
Maxime Menelec : I even wonder if the KS28 placed a meter and a half from the screen will not make it get into vibration (laughs), (but fortunately it will not vibrate, Ed.)
We cannot repeat enough the importance of the work carried out by Romain Berguin, or let’s say we can, we will explain it to you in a few lines but first …
SLU : When did you start to work for Eric Serra ?
Romain Berguin
Romain Berguin : It was in 2015 during a project prepared for the Grand Rex big Paris cinema, a best of his film music played by his group with video extracts from the various movies. I was contacted by Eric to help him find, compile and somehow help organize this gig.
For two months we dug through its well-kept archives to release what was needed, movie by movie, and I worked in his studio to provide the musicians with what they needed. I also remixed all the titles from multitracks, managed Ableton, time code and, icing on the cake, I played on stage!
After that gig at the Rex, the tour did not take place for production reasons, but I officially became his assistant and I have had the pleasure of working with him on a new soundtrack for 18 months since then. It must be said that his studio is built as a huge configuration.
What we have tonight must represent 10% of what it has there in terms of digital complexity. There is very old and very modern gear at the same time, and you have to make everything work. There are as many items as in a pro studio, but it’s designed like a home studio with everything close at hand. You can do anything in every way, hence the complexity.
SLU : And before working with Eric ?
Romain Berguin : I started coming to Paris at quite a young age to play in clubs and start my personal network as a musician, rather playing jazz on bass and piano. I then gave up bass and moved to Paris.
SLU : What about you, Max ?
Romain Berguin : We met at Eric Tourneur’s (him again! Ed.) because we’re both from Périgueux. We’re pals since a long time and we came to the technique in the same way.
Jean-Phi Schevingt and, behind, Romain Berguin caught up in the largest room at RIFFX Studios, each one in front of their screens.
SLU : Let’s get back to The Big Blue. It’s you who searched, found the sources and is the master of ProTools and effects that are truly essential for this soundtrack (smile). It’s on your PT session that we find the separate tracks of the studio soundtrack. How many tracks there?
Romain Berguin : 32 digital tracks (Mitsubishi or 3M reel-to-reel, there were quite a few of these in Paris at the end of the 80’s, Ed.). The problem is that this tape was transferred 15 years ago to a ProTools 24, necessarily in two separate multitrack copies, and that unfortunately something changed during this digitalization process, which meant that we had to struggle to realign everything. It lacked some material! But we delivered everything right on time.
SLU : I kinda feel the confusion rising with the number of frames per second…
Romain Berguin : And you’re damn right. The audio was composed at 25 frames per second and the film shot at 25 fps, however during the first projection Eric was quite surprised because the projectors of this cinema rolled at 24 fps!
Part of this fine team during a break in rehearsals. From left to right Seb, Romain and Max.
SLU : So the film lasted longer and the tone was lower pitched in cinemas …
Romain Berguin : Yes, but when the DVD was made in “frame based”, the image was changed to 25 fps, but the sound remained in the pitch of the 24 fps as it was heard in cinemas, and not in the original pitch. It sounds obvious said like that, but it took me a while to understand. (Take a stroll on YouTube and listen to the opening credits sequence as posted by various people, it’s pretty neat).
We therefore time-stretched the whole session to convert it in 24 fps because the decision was made to work in 24 fps format. The hardest part was then to generate a click track to be able to play it live in perfect sync with the movie. It should be remembered that this soundtrack was composed, to the nearest image, by Eric, but he had not planned that one day it could be played live on stage by musicians …
SLU : The number of meeting points between audio and image is impressive. How is the sound on the multitrack, worked or dry.
Romain Berguin : No, dry, nothing added, the first time it did sound weird because it doesn’t work. I think the original mix was done with 8 reverb channels.
Ah, the good ol’ Dispatch racks… The two FOH Waves servers, the main one and the spare one.
SLU : How did you manage to find the sounds and program your algorithms…
Romain Berguin : I listened to the original movie’s mix, and thought I was going to be able to work on a few presets, but I quickly became disillusioned. I then inserted the Multirack Waves into my ProTools set up in MADI and I made the automation of my sends as with a real console.
This subsequently allowed me to deliver two servers for FOH and monitors with instructions on which source to send to which algorithm and at which level.
SLU : What about the Midiverb of the time?
Romain Berguin : We didn’t use them (LOL).
During a number, an ugly click is heard, it is not the first time and it is ugly enough to trigger a deep search to flush it out. No luck for it, there are in the studio Ben, Seb, Max and Romain. So it has no chance indeed. After eliminating the clocks, the sources and the mixes one by one, the eyes are on the Waves server.
Bingo! The fault comes from there. When creating the effects and automating them, Romain programmed a change of pre-delay to one of the countless reverberations, but in the middle of the title. What used to be OK at home is now indigestible for a busy server. A few manipulations and it goes from click to death.
SLU : Did the import of the effects session into the consoles go well?
Ben Rico : It was not easy. Romain worked in the studio on his ProTools HD and a Mac dedicated to Multirack, and the SD7 has its own way of working, where the server is exactly the same.
Ben Rico, delivering good monitor mixes and good jokes, and the Man in White… with skull!
So we had to change all the names of the snapshots so that they were strictly identical, we had to add the number of the snapshot in the session and vice versa, otherwise we ended up with the same reverb everywhere.
We also had labelling problems because in the console there are commas and in the MultiRack there are periods. So we called to the rescue Claude Rigollier from DV2 who himself took on Waves. We haven’t been smart for a week. (laughs!)
The two DD4s at FOH in the rehearsal room.
Seb Barbato : Claude also helped us a lot with the Optocore because again, we are at the limit.
Maxime Menelec : This Optocore loop allowed us to very simply send the signal between the two DiGiCo consoles (FOH and monitors) and the SD rack, but also via three DD4s, to give life to Romain’s ProTools, J-Phi’s MainStages and the L matrix -Isa.
When we add up the total number of channels in the loop, we exceed the 504 admissible. So we had to downgrade, reconfigure all the DD4s one by one, so that each one does what we need. By default they provide as many channels in both directions, which is useless for us.
Ben Rico : When we connected the loop we got an alert like “you connected 1500 channels! (Laughs!)
SLU : Romain, what exactly does your ProTools in the loop?
Romain Berguin : Lots of things (smiles). I record and play sound. You should know that performing on stage The Big Blue with 7 musicians is a feat because there are a large number of sounds to send and necessarily, right at the right time.
The two drummers Loïc and David, for example, play everything in addition to some drum sounds, and can sometimes send honks or cymbals with the kick (laughs). To help themselves, they record their own voice giving instructions, cues which will be sent in their ear-monitors by Ben.
A score on tablet, ready to scroll. It is positioned here on the first title, the Big Blue Overture.
In addition to all that, I send the movie soundtrack (5.1 and dialogues), the cues for each musician, adapted to their own instrument, and some sound design tracks that it would have been useless to add to what the musicians (Eric also has a keyboard besides its bass, Ed.) have to perform.
We made in the studio the distribution between all the sounds to be played, with a certain logic, but without asking their opinion to the musicians who, once in front of their scores, were passed on to them (laughs). The scores take into account the latest distribution and are somewhat dynamic thanks to a web server.
SLU : Is your configuration redundant?
Romain Berguin : Of course, there are two Protools HD which run in parallel with two HD MADI and an automatic switch in the event of a crash.
SLU : What will be your role on the Big Night?
Romain Berguin : I will especially monitor the sync with the server media which delivers the image for the 4 video projectors, 2 main ones and 2 spare ones. The film file is 900 GB big. The server also delivers an image to each musician in which is embedded the measure count generated from the ProTools HD.
SLU : Thanks to this measures count, we find that Eric enjoyed a lot changing times on the fly.
Romain Berguin : Ahh sure you better follow up. We go from 5 to 4 and from 4 to 3 beats very easily.
The very first images of the movie, 24th bar, 1rst beat
The time has come to rise to the surface, a few days before diving back to the Seine Musicale hall for an interview with Jean-Philippe Schevingt, the sound designer, then to discover the Grande Seine hall, its huge screen, the L -Isa configuration and… enjoy this moment like no other when, as with an HR sound file, you rediscover an old song with a new emotion and goose bumps that believe they’re enjoying 14th of July!
A whole lot of L-Acoustics K Series cabinets to match the pyrotechnics on Rammstein’s tour. K1, K2 and K1-SB hanged on 8 points on the field and 8 others on the roof. 68 ground stacked KS28 support the low end. @Jens Koch
Germany’s rock group Rammstein have launched their first ever stadium tour. To cover the massive crowds, and rival the monumental pyrotechnics, an L-Acoustics K Series AVB PA system was provided by SSE Hire, whose parent company Solotech supplied the video systems.
Jordan Franks, Hire Administrator at SSE, says that the intense schedule combined with the scale of the shows were key early challenges for Rammstein tour management, which meant it had to be careful to choose partners that could deliver.
“SSE has a wealth of experience supporting stadium-sized tours around the world,” he says. “For this one, SSE and Solotech have been able to share logistics, equipment, and expertise. That makes the tour a milestone project across the Solotech Group.”
Now imagine what could happen when you hit your double kick drum and 180 LA12X send 2,2 MW of power to the 360 Kabinets !! @Jens Koch
The initial specification for the PA came from the tour’s System Engineer, Andreas Vater. SSE Project Manager Miles Hillyard then worked with Vater to refine the system design, taking into account each of the venues’ unique features and complexities.
“L-Acoustics tech support assisted with some design aspects too,” says Franks. “It was a group effort to bring the entire project together and everyone involved couldn’t have been happier with the support and service received from L-Acoustics.”
The two main PA hangs were made up of 18 K1 and four K2 down on each side, with four delay towers of 16 K1 and four K2 each. The eight roof delay hangs each used 12 K2 and the front fills were made up of 16 Kara and 16 ARCS II cabinets.
Two hangs of 20 K1-SB were flown, along with another 68 ground stacked KS28 subwoofers, to provide the rumble and thunder the band required. A total of 180 LA12X amplified controllers provided all the power needed, and audio transport was handled via Milan AVB. FOH and monitor consoles were all Avid S6L.
@Jens Koch
“Rammstein is the biggest AVB tour SSE has carried out to date,” says Franks. “We are extremely proud to have worked on such a ground-breaking production.”
“It was an interesting and exciting tour to work on,” adds SSE Crew Chief Nick Pain. “The scale of everything on this tour was bigger than most stadium tours, from the size of the stage to the number of speakers and amplifiers we were using on a daily basis. One of the band’s main concerns on this tour was audio quality. Good system design and a suitable number of cabinets ensured that we could provide high quality audio in every seat of every venue we visited.”
“There were some challenges getting a handle on this immense AVB network during production rehearsals, but we received excellent support from L-Acoustics and data distribution manufacturer, Luminex. When the tour went out, the system was remarkably stable the whole time.”
According to Franks, Rammstein’s Production Director, Nicolai Sabottka – along with the rest of the production team – were delighted with the PA, from the design right through to the final delivery on the tour itself.
Rammstein in action. @Jens Koch
“It was clear L-Acoustics was the right choice of system,” he concludes. “SSE and L-Acoustics have worked as trusted partners for many years and we’re looking forward to that continuing as we look to the 2020 Rammstein tour dates.”
More info on L-Acoustics website
SKALAR is a large scale immersive kinetic lighting and electronic music art installation created by light artist / designer Christopher Bauder and composer / music producer Kangding Ray. It has been reimagined for Amsterdam’s The Gashouder, a stunning circular space where the work is being presented by Audio Obscura.
Photo: Tim Buiting
Once again, Christopher is utilising Robe Pointes as lightsources – 93 in total – in this invigorating new space. The installation which he calls SKALAR 360, also features 61 x double-sided mirrors with perimeter rings of 180 addressable pixels which are suspended on 183 custom KINETIC LIGHTS motorised winches.
In addition to the looped installation piece, Christopher and Kangding Ray are playing seven special related live performance shows in the same space.
Kanding Rayand and Christopher Bauder. Photo: Tim Buiting
SKALAR was first realised in the turbine hall of a former Berlin power station now the Kraftwerk art space, and then the same rectangular shape and dimensions were replicated for SKALAR MX which ran for 5 weeks in November / December at Fronton Mexico, Mexico City. Both were hugely successful.
The Gashouder was one of the original buildings that Christopher earmarked as ideal to stage a SKALAR experience, with the right combination of quirkiness, funkiness and industrial history. However, its spherical shape required a completely different approach, which has resulted in this unique in-the-round presentation.
The charismatic circular chamber – now been redeveloped as an arts, cultural and leisure area – has an iron roof and was once at the hub of Amsterdam’s Westergasfabriek gasworks complex powering the city’s western suburbs.
With all the mirrors in the show, they already had strong circular elements involved, but the challenge was to create a new set of circular movement and lighting patterns and sequences that would work with the specific geometry.
Five circular trusses were installed in the roof with diameters of 5.6,10.6, 15.6, 21.2 and 33.7 metres respectively, radiating out from the centre all trimmed at approximately 10 metres … and these were fitted with varying quantities of mirrors – between 1 and 24 per trussing ring.
Beyond these was an outside circle of 24 individually flown ladders, approximately 5 metres from the perimeter wall of the Gashouder, each rigged with three Pointes which appear to be floating in air in the dark. These provide excellent positions for hitting the mirrors and deflecting and bending the light around the room in the numerous elegant asymmetric patterns characteristic of SKALAR’s kinetic visuals.
The three lighting totems on the floor also featured in the Berlin and Mexico versions. In Amsterdam, each is rigged with seven Pointes and positioned around the room just underneath the circle 2 overhead position.
Kanding Rayand and Christopher Bauder. Photo: Tim Buiting
The overall footprint of the show is larger than in the rectangular format, and the lighting and mirrors are slightly more spread out, so in addition to all the original moves and positions that had to be updated and adjusted to reflect the new symmetry and layout, Christopher took the opportunity to programme in some new sequences.
Kangding Ray also made some adaptations and additions to the soundscape to reflect the space and some of the new moves as well as they the fact that they have a sumptuous 12-channel surround sound system at the Gashouder which lends itself perfectly to SKALAR’s immersive nature and juxtaposition of technology and imagination in an invigorating headspace.
The initial five SKALAR 360 live shows sold out so quickly that two more were added, where they manipulate and jam the sounds and visuals in real-time. For the first time, they are also presenting a rave-style party as one of the additional live sessions, complete with trendy South Korean DJ / record producer Peggy Gou who will play beneath the installation, bringing a special clubby vibe for just one exclusive performance!
Designed engage and challenge the mind and soul, guests lose themselves in a visual and sonic ambience that generate the very human reactions of ‘profound emotion’. The narrative for the looped show is essentially the same as the previous two SKALAR iterations, but the new space and formatting has changed the way the emotions at the heart of the ‘experience’ can be expressed.
When selecting a light source for the original installation in Berlin, Christopher wanted something bright, precise and intense and a dynamic fixture with multiple options to modify the beam, which was small and accurate in cue repeatability across large distances.
The Pointe’s frost and the strobing function with their adjustable frame rates are present in SKALAR 360, and several different Pointe functions are utilized for the looped show and live concerts.
Photo: Tim Buiting
The Pointe beams pierce the darkness effortlessly, paired with the mirrors gracefully gliding into different formations, occasionally startled by a belligerent white-out and backed by Kangding Ray’s mesmeric, rhythmic soundtrack that has such a hypnotic soothing effect.
The Pointes in Amsterdam are supplied by rental company Flashlight and all feature a special TV colour wheel with TV optimised colours like lavender, skin tones and a selection of colour corrected whites, that Christopher has morphed into the show, giving a nice contrast and evolution. DMX data signals for the Pointes are converted from Art-Net and integrated into the custom KINETIC LIGHTS proprietary KLC software platform controlling them and the winch movement.
The lighting treatments – stimulating the different emotions – are rendered as cues in real-time during playback and triggered by MIDI keys from the Ableton Live system running the master audio track during the looped SKALAR show.
Each mirror is physically controlled by three winches giving up / down movement plus pan / tilt, so they can move incredibly smoothly on XY and Z axes making their kinesis beautifully three-dimensional and fluid.
A new flexible mounting frame for the winches to the truss has been devised for this version which helps define the perfect distance and orientation of the winches towards each other. The installation was completed by a technical crew from Christopher’s project company WHITEvoid, production managed by Florian Fink.
The installation opened on 10th January and runs until the 5th of February and is drawing massive audiences. These have been different again from Mexico and Berlin, and Christopher commented that the Netherlands and those living in Amsterdam in particular are known for their erudite and discerning consumption of electronic music which he thinks has definitely fuelled the SKALAR 360 buzz, especially for the LIVE shows.
About SKALAR
SKALAR is a large scale lighting, audio and kinetic installation artwork featuring a series of moving mirrors and beam moving light fixtures based on Plutchik’s ‘wheel of emotions’, where audiences can experience the full range of eight primary emotions – Anticipation, Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, Sadness, Surprise and Trust.
Visually the SKALAR concept is all about the relationship between the real beams of light coming from the fixtures onto the mirrors and the virtual ‘secondary’ beams which are created and bounced, reflected and refracted between the mirrors and various endpoints around the room.
The different resonance, tonality, texture and quality of the light beams and the viewing angles and proximities affect perception and therefore everyone’s reactions … and resulting sensory experiences.
More info on Robe Website
Active Audio, the award winning French manufacturer of column array loudspeakers and solutions for acoustically-challenging environments, has announced the appointment of Allied ProTech as its exclusive distributor for the United States, effective immediately.
Founded in 2002 in Nantes, France, Active Audio has forged a global reputation for offering loudspeakers that deliver superior sound performance, intelligibility, and neutrality, with installations in some of the world’s most prestigious, and acoustically challenging spaces.
From left to right, Margie Kirby VP Allied ProTech, Régis Cazin CEO Active Audio and Rik Kirby, Founder and President Allied ProTech.
“We’re very excited about our new partnership with Active Audio”, said Allied ProTech founder and president Rik Kirby. “Active Audio is a company that is constantly innovating and finding better ways to deliver superior audio performance.
“Their StepArray column loudspeakers deliver outstanding intelligibility in reverberant spaces, using fewer DSP channels, without the complex and expensive electronics that make most steered arrays so difficult to install and set up. They offer a full line of active and passive loudspeaker technologies that’s unique to the market, and we’re eagerly anticipating bringing their products to the US.”
“Now is the ideal time for us to enter the U.S. market, and Allied ProTech is the right partner to help us succeed,” added Active Audio’s CEO Régis Cazin. “Rik brings more than 20 years of expertise in professional audio, and the entire Allied ProTech team bring an insight and understanding of what makes our loudspeakers unique. We’re confident they will provide the expert sales management and distribution we seek, along with the outstanding service and support that our customers deserve.”
More about Active Audio and their full line of loudspeakers, visit the Active Audio website
More about Allied ProTech can be found on the Allied Protech website
You may have noticed, but the cityscape at night has started to morph into a more colorful, changing atmosphere, using dynamic lighting such as on media façade installation.
Obviously, the LED plays a major role here, as the small size of this source enables the installation of RGB lighting where it was purely impossible back in the days.
Inoage, a German based company in Dresden, knows this market perfectly, and built a name in the past years via their easy-to-use pixel mapping software, Madrix, used on large-scale installations around the world (architectural, events or club).
The Inoage booth at ISE 2020
Generally controlled by DMX, all these LED fixtures must first be installed, then addressed and configured to control them, and finally monitored to guarantee the good health of the installation and its components. With this idea in mind, at ISE 2020 the Inoage company unveiled Madrix Radar, a software solution to cover all the above-mentioned steps.
Madrix Radar software is available for computers running a 64-bit version of Windows 10 and will perfectly fit on any latest generation laptop. The software supports the RDM protocol via ArtNet and is therefore compliant with a large amount of equipment. The implementation of RDMNet, the new standard for RDM over IP, is not yet on the agenda.
The patch window.
When used with compliant equipment, or via Madrix Ethernet to DMX converters, the software will be able to discover a very large number of RDM fixtures on the network.
Once discovered, the software allows you to change the mode of the projectors, as well as their DMX addresses, in a simple way.
Once the equipment has been patched, the software will start monitoring the RDM fixtures and their sensors, on a regular basis.
Left panel: the list of discovered RDM fixture, right panel: the sensors of the selected fixture, bottom panel the log of the selected sensors.
And here comes the magic of Madrix Radar: the software will create a log of all information collected from the fixtures and their sensors. And all this information will be stored in a database (Big Data), with one goal in mind: prediction.
The concept is simple: if you can store a maximum of information about a type of fixture and its sensors, in the long term and based on this database, this information will enable the software to “predict” events, such as the replacement of a component: who has never dreamt about this!
Picture of an email received after the disconnection of a LED fixture from the demo system
The people in charge of a dynamic lighting installation can see the return on investment of such a solution:
no need to send a team on a regular basis for a system check, not only the software will allow to monitor the installation in real time, in addition to this, it will predict potential issues as well.
In the unlikely event of a fault on one or several fixtures, the user can receive notifications by email, or a daily report of the system health.
Madrix Radar is a logical step in the evolution and the growing needs of the team in charge of RDM-compliant LED installation.
We can “predict” the Inoage team will bring many new features to the software, and we can’t wait to see the Madrix Radar database to grow so that we can witness a real “prediction”!
More info on Madrix web site
In light of recent developments in the Coronavirus, the Adam Hall Group has decided not to participate in this year’s Prolight Sound in Frankfurt. Instead the Adam Hall Group will present numerous innovations in a livestream on 31 March 2020 on the company website.
“We have been an integral part of the music trade show Prolight + Sound for 38 years. Every year we look forward to meeting our partners and customers in Frankfurt am Main and being able to present our latest innovations. But an entertainment trade show needs a certain sense of fun that is so essential to our industry as a whole.
Alexander Pietschmann, CEO of the Adam Hall. Group.
Ongoing concerns and precautionary measures associated with the COVID-19 virus mean that this light-heartedness isn’t possible in light of the latest developments. We have made this difficult decision because we attach great importance to the safety and well-being of our employees, business partners and end user as well as media partners,” says Alexander Pietschmann, CEO of the Adam Hall Group.
The livestream with all product highlights from the brands Cameo, LD Systems, Gravity, Defender and Palmer will start on 31 March 2020 at 10:00 am CET at www.adamhall.com/virtualtradeshow
Further information on Adam Hall website
Lighting Designer Matt Guminski wanted to create something raw, fresh, different and stylish for rising-star indie rockers MisterWives just completed a sold-out ‘underplay’ tour in the US promoting their just-dropped EP mini bloom.
The goal was fulfilled with the help of 16 x Astera Titan Tube wireless pixel tubes supplied by 4Wall Nashville from lighting rep Tyler Bevel and VP of business development Al Ridella.
Photo: Sarah Duffy
Matt was initially introduced to the band at the Boston Calling festival in 2015 and joined up for a run supporting their record Our Own House. Since then, they kept in touch, waiting for all the stars to align so they could create together again.
The opportunity poped up last fall when tour manager Alex Feld got in touch with him to present some design concepts for the forthcoming string of US dates.
With lead singer Mandy Lee’s enthusiasm for floral and outdoor elements, Matt hit on the notion of using the Astera Titan Tubes rigged at different heights to make a ‘LED forest’ look on stage and have the band live within the world of the tubes.
Photo: Sarah Duffy
Thanks to those, the depth and three-dimensionality of stage appealed to both him and Mandy. The design focal point quickly was the Astera Titan Tube.
Some of the tubes were installed on the floor with the stock floor bases and others attached to the upstage trusses using a combination of their proprietary clamps and some modified film clips which allowed them to be hung vertically off the trusses.
The upstage Titan Tubes were attached to schedule 40 pipe and to four vertical truss towers to elevate them above the band, while others were positioned on flight cases, amps, and the drum riser to give assorted heights. “The Asteras filled up the space brilliantly!” stated Matt.
Photo: Sarah Duffy
Well known as wireless battery powered fixtures, on this occasion Matt ran the Titan Tubes wired, which is also an option, to allow for maximum brightness.
One of the goals was to be flexible due to the varying stage sizes. “We needed to be able to open out or close down the space as effectively as possible without compromising the look,” he explained.
“Having this many Asteras allowed us to bring the space beyond its physical size and break the fourth ‘wall’ of the audience when needed. Finding the right fixture mode on a product with over 100 different options was key. Once set up, the tubes immediately gave a unique and dynamic visual impact that helped transfer all that energy onstage out into the audience.”
It was the first time Matt had used Titan Tubes on a design but other Astera products had been on his horizon and lighting plots for some time including the AX5s and AX10s which had been used on several corporate events.
The Astera fixtures offer “loads of wonderful features,” he states, “the user interface is clear and concise and all tools needed to mount and charge the tubes (if using the battery power) are located in the very well thought-out flight case.”
Photo: Sarah Duffy
Having them on this run of shows was “Fantastic!” he says, adding that the colour mixing is “amazing” and that the CTOs are beautiful to work with, and “in fact the full CT ranges are great, from the warmest whites to the bluest daylight hues and all the colours in between – the calculations are all spot on.”
Matt also appreciates the straightforward control and pixel mapping possibilities via the lighting console, in this case a Hog 4, as well as the way the Titans are packaged with every conceivable rigging option.
Photo: Sarah Duffy
Overall, he’s found Astera products “extremely easy” to use and deployment of the entire Titan Tube rig took only about a half-hour. “Besides the visual impact that the Titan Tubes offer, what was even more impressive was that half of my rig fitted into two cases about the size of a guitar flight case!”
He also comments that Astera’s US distributor, Florida-based Inner Circle Distribution, especially Owner Noel Duncan, have been invaluable in getting this project up and running.
For more information on Astera website
At ISE, Amadeus highlighted the version 1.5 of its Holophonix spatial sound processor, featuring many new functions, corrections, and improvements. The rewriting of his graphical interface, according to new Web technology standards, ensures optimal performances.
Unveiled in 2018 at the Frankfurt Prolight + Sound trade show, and commercially available since January 1st, 2019, the Holophonix spatial sound processor continues to be updated and enhanced, according to requests and needs expressed by its users.
Holophonix 1st appearance in Frankfurt. Souvenirs…
Developed with several musical, theatrical and scientific institutions, the Holophonix processor was designed in a collaboration with the STMS (Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son), a laboratory founded in 1995 and hosted by the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique and affiliating the CNRS, Sorbonne Université, the Ministère de la Culture, and IRCAM around an interdisciplinary research theme dealing with music and sound sciences, and technologies.
“We released about ten updates over the last 18 months, answering requests of our extremely proactive users, who never stop sending us feedback. The forthcoming 1.5 version is a more structural update.
It includes a complete overhaul of the graphical user interface (GUI) and a totally revised communication bridge between servers and applications, optimizing high-speed transmission of OSC messages.
Rewriting our graphical interface from the ground up, according to new Web technology standards, ensures optimal performances with today’s tools, with deep scalability and flexibility for the future,” says Johan Lescure, Holophonix Chief Technology Officer at Amadeus.
To cut a long story short, discover the new graphic interface in this short movie. The speakers are in grey, the seats are red and the objets fly and turn like Sputnik.
“In addition, a new application, Holophonix Updater, is now available. It allows the users to download updates themselves, to upgrade their station in perfect autonomy. Audio core performances have been optimized as well, and the user can still adapt the processor to its use, by choosing between CPU load and global latency (which can be as low as 1.90ms),” Johan Lescure specifies.
With Holophonix, it’s Broadway !
Version 1.5 includes new encoders and source formats developed by STMS, to ensure maximum compatibility with different Ambisonics capture tools. This new version also includes an equalizer, offering 5 PEQ plus high-pass filters, and low-pass filters. This equalizer is available for each virtual source and each physical (Dante) output, as well as spatialization buses, offering more versatility and features to the processor.
The Holophonix processor is also now compatible with the em32 Eigenmike microphone, developed by mh acoustics. It includes 32 microphone capsules, to capture soundstages in the HOA (Higher Order Ambisonics) 4th order format. The processor is also compatible with the ZM-1 microphone developed by Zylia. ZM-1 includes 10 microphone capsules, to capture soundstages in the HOA 3rd order format.
The processor already allows the processing of 1st order Ambisonics streams in A-Format and B-Format. It can thus process natively raw signals available directly at the output of Ambisonics microphones (A-Format) like Sennheiser AMBEO, SoundField ST250, ST450 or SPS200, RØDE NT-SF1, DPA-4 or Oktava MK-4012. It can also process a generic format source (B-Format) with parameters available to offer compatibility with various formats and standards (FMH, ACN, as well as normalizations FuMa, MaxN, and SN3D).
An offline editor software, Holophonix Designer, is also available, including a binaural pre-rendering function. This application, available on Windows and macOS platforms, will integrate all the graphical functionalities available inside the Holophonix processor, with a binaural rendering engine to ease project pre-production while listening on headphones.
The processor integrates new ‘MicTree’ virtual objects (or sources), to process a main ‘microphone tree’ more easily. A single ‘MicTree’ object can include 1 to 128 microphones. The ‘Mics’ window allows the user to define the real position of the microphones, and if appropriate, to automatically realign each cell, in time (delay) and in intensity (level). Any ‘MicTree’ source captures the integrality of the soundstage, without applying any specific processing to the signal.
The equalizer, offering 5 PEQ plus high-pass filters, and low-pass filters is available for each virtual source, physical output and spatialization buses.
Also new for the 1.5 update, the Holophonix processor is now equipped with a new decoder, called LBAP (Layer-Base Amplitude Panning). LBAP is an amplitude panning algorithm, optimized for tridimensional setups based on several layers (with a different number of speakers for each).
This algorithm works by selecting a speaker pair on each of the layers surrounding the source, applying an amplitude panning on each pair, then completing a level ponderation between the two layers. It ensures better results than VBAP (Vector-Base Amplitude Panning) for cube-shaped configurations.
“Finally, Holophonix integrates the first software features leading towards using the processor (and thus, possibly, mixing) in Virtual Reality. The processor is already compatible with the Oculus Quest headset, to more easily manipulate sources from a virtual and tridimensional room.
Our users are looking for solutions to control and move sources via new interfaces and/or tools, more natural and more universal than traditional 2D-control surfaces. This innovative ‘VR’ approach in the Holophonix 1.5 update is a first part of the answer, which we will develop and extend,” concludes Johan Lescure.
Liste non exhaustive des ajouts, améliorations et résolutions de bugs contenus au sein de la mise à jour 1.5 :
– Adds a function for the position icon. Clicking on it switches between AED or XYZ positioning
– Adds a lock distance to 1-meter from the center
– Adds a new hover color within the routing page
– Adds a no computing VU-meters function when not visible, for CPU saving
– Adds a scaling per source
– Adds help functions only when venue 3D is activated
– Adds selection from mixer
– Adds spotlights to the 3D venue for a nicer visual effect
– Adds Virtual-Reality (VR) support, for Oculus Quest
– Changes from .OBJ extension files, to .GLB extension files for better compatibility with web browsers.
– Changes from Command key to Ctrl key to rotate the 3D venue
– Disabling slave option on A-Format, B-Format, Zylia, MicTree and EigenMike sources
– Fixes a label layering order issue in 3D visualization mode
– Fixes a reverb issue in the bus parameter edit section
– Fixes an edit name issue for sound elements
– Fixes an issue in color editing
– Improves changing the view center (for zoom and rotate) by double clicking
– Improves GUI stability Full rewrite of the code
More informations on the Amadeus website and on the Holophonix website
With an audience of more than 100 million, this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. 14 minutes of an extraordinary show, featuring JLo, Shakira and Sennheiser D6000 coupled with MD 9235 capsules for the latter.
Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 wireless system was the microphone of choice for headline performer Shakira as well as her special guest, Bad Bunny, as the two Latin GRAMMY Award® winning artists sang against a perfect Miami cultural backdrop. ATK Audiotek handled the audio design for the pre-game festivities, referee microphones and the Halftime Show for the 23rd Super Bowl in a row.
Shakira during the show with his gold sparkled SKM 6000 handheld transmitter (Getty Images)
Once the clock ran out after the second quarter, the Halftime Show crew had approximately six minutes to dispatch and assemble the entire stage, located nearby the field’s 30-yard line. Antenna systems for the wireless microphones were set up in advance on either sideline prior to the game, along the stadium wall behind the team benches.
“It is not a traditional concert environment where you can put antennas out on the side of the stage where they are relatively close to the performer,” observes Gary Trenda, Lead RF Technician for Orlando, FL-based Professional Wireless Systems (PWS). “We deployed antennas on the sidelines and aimed them at where the stage was going to be; then we used an RF-over-fiber system to connect back to the receivers, which were in a rack room under the stands.”
For the Halftime Show performance, wireless receivers are usually placed at a further distance than at a typical rock concert, since the Halftime Show stage is temporary and must be disassembled after just 14 minutes. As such, the wireless must perform flawlessly despite not having the advantage of close proximity to the stage. “In a show like this, reliability is critical,” says Trenda. “We’ve got to pick up the signal at a longer distance, and it really needs to be rock solid.”
Sennheiser SKM 6000 transmitters, coupled with MD 9235 capsules, were used by Shakira and Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl Halftime Show (photo courtesy Gary Trenda)
For Shakira and Bad Bunny, the RF team deployed four channels of Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless three separate mic channels for Shakira, and one for Bad Bunny.
Shakira sang several songs through a gold sparkled SKM 6000 handheld transmitter and MD 9235 dynamic cardioid capsule, before being joined onstage by Bad Bunny, who also sang through an SKM 6000 colored in neon yellow, coupled with a distinctive red MD 9235 capsule.
“This is my second Super Bowl using Sennheiser digital systems, and our experience has been that even in a crowded RF environment, it is a very reliable microphone system,” says Trenda. As one would expect, the RF environment at the Super Bowl can be challenging:
“In the stadium area alone, there are probably 500 frequencies of mics and IEM-type systems so we are really looking to zero in on the mics we care about and filter out anything else. This is why we applied 6 MHz cavity tuned filters in front of the Sennheiser receivers. The filters are tuned specifically to the frequencies we were using for that pair of microphones.”
With 23 Super Bowl Halftime Shows under their belt, preparation is key for ATK Audiotek. Among many other activities that take place, a site survey is conducted around September in which a crew is dispatched to examine the local RF environment.
RF coordination is done by the NFL Event Frequency Coordinators (EFCs). Lead EFC Loren Sherman assigns frequencies for the Halftime Show so every dimension of the performances can be carried out. The crew loads in a week and a half prior to game day, and then crews are allocated time for on-field rehearsals. This year, ATK and PWS ran through full rehearsals of the Halftime Show three times each time carefully scanning the RF environment to ensure smooth operation.
On a scale of programming such as the Super Bowl, RF crews inevitably face last minute challenges in this case, the performers’ preference to use aesthetically stylized microphones had to be reconciled with transmitters aligned to the right frequencies.
Trenda explains: “We had a blinged out black microphone, one that was painted a metallic red, and another that was blinged out gold, but the transmitters were in a frequency range that we were not able to use at the Super Bowl. So, we called Sennheiser and they were able to send handheld transmitters in a range that was exactly what we needed for the show. We then swapped out the blinged out shells onto entirely different transmitters. The support from Sennheiser was fast and dependable.”
Brett Valasek, General Manager of ATK Audiotek, appreciates the quality, reliability and service support Sennheiser provides, adding: “We’ve done many shows with the Sennheiser Digital 6000, and it is a product we trust,” he says. “We were very happy that both Shakira and Bad Bunny were using the Digital 6000s we are very pleased with its RF strength and audio clarity. With respect to our transmitter frequency challenges, we are very pleased that Sennheiser was able to support us through the entire process. We truly value our relationship with Sennheiser.”
The Halftime show:
And more information on the Sennheiser website
Photo Martin Godfroid, courtesy RTBF
The massive ‘Viva for Life’ concert fundraiser event organised by Belgian national TV channel RTBF used an ArKaos Stage Server Pro and Kling-Net protocol to save thousands of DMX channels and provide a fluid, real-time harmony between lighting and video effects onstage. The visual design for the stage that performed multiple days in Tournai city square, featuring a diverse line up of top Belgian artists, was created by RTBF’s Didier Piron.
Photo Martin Godfroid, courtesy RTBF
Selected highlights of the event were broadcast live on TV and it attracted massive crowds into the heart of the city each night to enjoy some great entertainment. Also integral to the fundraising efforts was a 144-hour non-stop RTBF radio broadcast with the presenters locked into a glass-fronted studio adjacent to the stage!
Didier’s production design for the stage involved several strips of LED video screen surface arranged in columns along the back, with horizontal strips around the sides of the stage. His lighting rig included a total of 18 x Claypaky HY B-EYE K15 and K25 LED wash luminaires which were mapped with Kling-Net.
This allowed the same video content to be run through both elements – the screen and the wash lights – producing beautifully matched movements, effects, and colours. Running lights like these in ‘extended’ mode to enable the full range of pixel effects is hungry on DMX channels on the lighting console, but running them through Kling-Net and the Stage Server freed up 2,664 desk channels that could be used for other fixtures on the rig.
Photo Martin Godfroid, courtesy RTBF
It also simplified the get in, set-up and programming as the Kling-Net took care of all the complex network settings.
Two of the server’s HD DVI outputs were dedicated to the playback video running on the screens, and a third with a network connector ran Kling-Net to the fixtures.
The server was triggered by the grandMA2 full size.
The ‘double map’ – of fixtures and video panels – also enabled content parameters like intensity and motion running through both sets of hardware to be tweaked simultaneously and at any time via the console. The decision to run the control setup like this was made by the event’s lighting and video operator Rudy Fastre who provided the ArKaos server and the grandMA console as well as the playback video content, and worked very closely with Didier to achieve his overall creative vision for the stage. Rudy has been a fan of ArKaos Kling-Net for some time.
Photo Martin Godfroid, courtesy RTBF
Kling-Net is a revolutionary plug-and-play control protocol developed by digital media specialist ArKaos for the easy operation of LED and video devices / lightsources.
It allows the distribution of real-time video data to remote display devices – like LED fixtures or LED panels – over Ethernet, adding a degree of ‘intelligence’ with the automatic configuration and connection of display devices to a computer or a console.
Last year, several leading lighting manufacturers, including Claypaky, decided to embed a Kling-Net network interface in selected products to enhance the creative and practical options for ‘visual’ designs like this that embrace both lighting and video elements.
Running a show this way also increases the flexibility of the lighting fixtures which can be run as ‘conventional’ moving lights in one cue and as pixel-mapped effects fixtures in the next in perfect harmony with the screen content.
Photo Martin Godfroid, courtesy RTBF
This is an ideal scenario for multi-artist events like these where a lot of variety is needed, and where only one console is available to run a scheme with fixtures consuming a lot of DMX channels.
The Viva for Life project was produced by Nicolas De Leerner for RTBF. Rudy was assisted on the lighting operation by Maurice Fulco and the technical production supplier for lighting was CST Production. LED screens were delivered by Greg Dejardin and the sound was managed by RTBF’s team.
More info on the Arkaos website
