The final parade. In the scene are the 5,500 extras who gave a year of their lives to present you this phenomenal show! (photo: FEVI)
This Winemakers’ Festival takes place only four or five times per century, so it is essential not to miss this cultural and highly technical event. Emma Husson, an SLU contributor who was part of this Swiss adventure, tells us about it from the inside in two installments.
That’s it, it’s done. 2019 will remain a legendary year for our Swiss friends, at least for the Veveysans, the inhabitants of the Lavaux vineyards, situated in the canton of Vaux. But where did they get the idea of organizing the festival once every generation?
And what a festival it is! It’s one of excess, which, since its creation in 1797 and only four or five times a century, has given rhythm to the life of the winegrowers who work there, rewarding them for their hard work.
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After 20 years of snooping in the heart of the vineyards, the abbot president, seen from behind, rewards the best worker. (photo: FEVI)
Listed as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage event since 2016, this unique festival took place in 2019 from July 18th to August 11th. It brought together 5,500 volunteers accompanied by 700 amateur musicians in a temporary 20,000-seat arena, designed by scenographer Hugo Gargiulo and situated at the edge of Lake Geneva. They had the task of performing a show defined as extraordinary by Michel Colin, sound engineer for the 1999 festival.
The story, which has been the same for 200 years, is that of an ancestral tradition, the cycle of life of the vineyard through the whims of the seasons, as told by the talented director Daniele Finzi Pasca, from Ticino.
Who will be chosen?
Welcome to the Arena, let’s get a taste of the heights of technology! All the major brands in the audio industry came together to push their limits, develop their new specifications, and work closely with users in order to update their respective R&D teams on bugs and improvements for their next releases. There were 18 of them: 18 audio technicians who had answered the call of the lyoba, the sacred song of the Fribourgers that was banned by Napoleon, for fear that the Swiss mercenaries would desert his army.
Traditionally, the Armaillis – inhabitants of the mountains on the Fribourg side – would tend to the cattle of the winegrowers who were too busy working the vineyards. (Photo: Claude Cellier, Merging Technologies)
Developed two years earlier and approved by the technical director François Mottier, the specifications for the sound system – a real technical challenge – were designed to make this event unforgettable. But how could such a show be amplified without repeating the errors of the past?
The tower of 1999.
In 1999, it was alone, facing the lake, standing in the middle of the Market Square, at the tip of a triangle formed by two grandstands and the skyline. This tower was simply the support for a curious 360-degree array of MSL-5 and MSL-6, the long-throw speakers from the American company Meyer Sound. This configuration may seem almost inconceivable in 2019. The sound reinforcement system was a mono point-source, but it was used, says Alain Schneebeli, production manager for the 2019 edition who was also in charge of the sound system in 1999 with his company Hyperson, “because in 1977, the guidelines issued to a local electrician were to reinforce a natural acoustics in order to obtain 70 dB SPL at the level of the audience”.
Through the magic of LEDs, the Swiss flag appears under the honor guard, which also admitted women for the first time this year. (Photo: Claude Cellier, Merging Technologies)
In 2019, the emphasis was placed on the localization of the sound image, leading to collaboration with the artistic team from the very beginning of the composition of the music for the project. Don’t forget that this is a closed arena of 17,000 m2. There is not just one performance space, but five! The parterre, or “FoP” for Field of Play, is characterized by a 783-square-meter LED display floor, supplemented at the four cardinal compass points by four elevated secondary stages of 400 m2 each, linked together by a circular gangway.
The men in the shadows. The technical director Francois Mottier, with Eric Alvergnat. (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
The concept adopted is based on being able to locate the source by its sonic image, while at the same time having a low visual impact. For this purpose, a number of loudspeakers were defined and a call for tenders was issued in 2017.
Several companies submitted their bids, and the production chose Dushow, a vendor that is used to collaborating on major events in Switzerland. Besides, Dispatch (which later merged with Arpège and Caméléon to become Dushow) was already present in 1999.
Meyer Sound is not an unfamiliar brand on the Riviera, since it has been a partner of the Montreux Jazz Festival since 1986. In addition to being the French importer and distributor of the Californian brand, the group was also able to propose itself as the technical reference for all sectors, providing a global technical solution for sound, lighting and video.
Thanks to Hugo Girard, project manager for the Dushow group, for this photo during the build. For the cabling, a small system of 350 XLR5 cables for the distribution including 25 x 100 meter cables, 350 meters of 12 AES3-pair cables and 1000 x 2-, 5- and 10-meter XLR3 cables. All of this was put into production two months before installation! (Photo: Hugo Girard)
Coincidentally, José Gaudin of Meyer technical support is also Swiss, and works for the group as an instructor for system training. It is therefore quite natural that he was charged with deploying, optimizing and configuring these 556 speakers. Let’s take a closer look at this exceptional system, with some details provided by the sound designer.
The entire sound system was designed to be as close as possible to the audience, to convey the sonic image as faithfully as possible and, above all, to facilitate their perception and spatial localization of the source. To do this, many systems were set up to cover the various performance spaces.
Some of the 30-meter towers with many Meyer boxes and Lake Geneva as a backdrop.
Amplification of the FoP
Discreet and elegant CAL 32 self-amplified column speakers are positioned all around the edge of the FoP and the circular passageway on level 1, in order to provide spectators with a comfortable listening experience.
At the front is a UPJ and, above it, a CAL 32, with IP protection guaranteed by Meyer Sound for vertical positioning. (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
These loudspeakers – or rather these little gems of technology – are composed of 32 transducers aligned and individually managed by 32 amplification channels.
A proprietary algorithm allows the control of the vertical directivity, which can be varied from 5° to 30°, with an equally variable propagation axis. Programming is done using the Compass software.
However, if you use them outdoors, don’t forget their rain gear (not supplied by the brand; a garbage bag will do quite nicely), especially if you position them at an angle of 30 degrees.
An overview of the general speaker deployment, as provided to Dushow by Audioconsulting AG.
The two UPQs flown behind the towers of the East and West stages, as well as the stacks of eight Linas each for the North and South stages, are delayed to clarify the image of the FoP, for the people in the upper part of the stands, above the stages.
A rear ring is also used for sound effects. A total of 48 CAL 32s, 16 UPJs, 32 Linas and eight UPQ-1s – respectively for the mains and the delays – were deployed.
Amplification of the stages
A detail of one of the towers in the background. In the foreground, there is a pair of CAL 32s with the one on the left facing the parterre for the surround effects, while the one on the right is used as a delay for the grandstands. (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
Thirty meters up, that’s the height of the eight towers used to amplify the sound from the four stages. And they are loaded: they alone total 128 Leo-Ms, 72 Lyon-Ms, 24 Lyon-Ws, 96 Leopards, 24 Linas and 4 UPQ-1Ps.
How does it work? Well, it’s very simple. Each stage has its own sound reinforcement system, which entails a FoH position hidden in the tier of seats positioned in front of it.
The main difficulty lies in managing the distance between the system and the tier that faces it. As José reminds me: short distance, small system; long distance, large system. A little geometry is required!
If we analytically break down a single tower, and position ourselves in relation to the North or South stage, the greatest distance is 130 meters, whereas if we place ourselves at the width of the arena – i.e. the East and West stages – the maximum distance is only 90 meters. This explains why the equipment of the North and South towers is different from that of the East and West ones.
The radiation from one mast provides about 210 degrees of coverage. We find on the main axis, respectively, an array of 16 Leo-Ms, with an array of eight Linas as downfills, for the North and South towers, and two UPQ-1Ps for the East and West, a line of 12 Leopards for the side nearest the tower and, for the farthest one, an array of 12 Lyons, of which nine Ms and three Ws. The M corresponds to “Main” therefore long throws, where the W stands for “Wide”, for a broader aperture and, typically, shorter throws.
12 million pixels underfoot! Also, on the left is the East stage, and at the very end, the South stage. (Photo: Claude Cellier, Merging Technologies)
And the subs?
A 1100-LFC and Hugo Girard, a project manager who also works in the field! (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
The 52 1100-LFC subs suspended under the grandstands were divided into two rings on two different levels; they made the spectators vibrate with the percussive rhythms of the work in the vineyard.
A quick nod to Jérôme Berney, one of the composers who took into account the location of the percussion instruments when writing his music. He positioned the low-frequency and percussive waves in the center of the FoP and the voices on the various stages.
In this age of cardioids, Meyer Sound has deliberately designed its subs as omnidirectional. Their R&D has preferred to focus on the design of the suspension points and on optimizing the woodwork, in order to make any configuration possible… as long as you have enough processing channels, of course!
The trial assembly took place in April at Dushow, where all the equipment was tested, including the Galaxy racks. (Photo: Ludo Maurin)
What about the phase alignment in all of this? Let’s get back to José’s explanation. We can print the positions of each system and each of the subs on an A4 sheet. Let’s fold the sheet into quarters, measure the distances for each sub corresponding to this area and then transpose this data to the rest of the arena.
An installation like this one requires a lot of processing channels and, above all, the use of a gain matrix and a delay matrix, all of which Meyer calls Galaxy.
There are four of these processors, which allow the signal from the five stages to be sent into each of the 52 subs, with a volume and delay time corresponding to the attenuation as a function of distance and the traverse time.
The sound coverage – conclusion
One of the advantages of using Meyer is that the enclosures are autonomously amplified, which means that the DSP processing can be carried out upstream and there is no need to hide a mountain of amps at the bottom of the towers. Hidden in each FoH position are five Galaxy processors that allow the right signals to be distributed to the right speakers.
The legendary and inseparable couple, John and Helen Meyer. José Gaudin, on the left, and Boris Gerber listen attentively to the master’s explanations. (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
A total of 20 systems of 16 outputs were required, including four for the subs. For practical reasons, analog connections were used for the outputs and AES3 for the inputs. AVB has been integrated into the Galaxy and into the amplification section of the CALs.
The system optimization – which includes the calculation of the angles of the bumpers, the boxes, the azimuth and the throw to achieve the final result – was carried out using the Mapp XT prediction software, developed by Meyer. It has the particular characteristic of delocalizing the calculations to a mega-computer that, according to legend, is hidden at the University of California at Berkeley…
Quite a few items from the catalog of the Berkeley company with the UPA-1P surround enclosures at the very top of the grandstand – in white and in pairs.
A little side story: how do you find the last 32 Leo-Ms you need at this time of year? You call on a friend: in this case José, who was in the process of securing Ed Sheeran’s system and had the opportunity to have this kit delivered. The only problem is that South Korea is a little far away…
So, as technical support at Meyer, he gave Dushow a list of availability, including a customer’s contact details… In India.
So far, we have neglected the reason for this installation: the sound localization. Two TIMAX2-Soundhub matrices moved the sound from one stage to another, assisted for the surround effect by the Yamaha Nuage system and by the 40 UPA-1Ps that encircled the top of the ring, to make the cries of the starlings more realistic than life!
And the sources? Let’s talk about those!
Joël Cormier and Maria Bonzanigo, the principal composer of the music, in the middle of a working session.
The AXIOM-MT mixing console was used to record the sound of the philharmonic orchestra, pre-mix it and distribute it to analog consoles for the sound reinforcement. In 2019, the orchestra was recorded a few months earlier by Joël Cormier, of the Idee und Klang studio in Basel.
On site, on the East stage, on the second level of the stack of containers, a mixing and pre-production studio was installed for the event, with David Weber, assisted by Ben, at the controls of a Yamaha Nuage system. Their job? To reduce the score to its simplest form: a stereo mix in 48 kHz/24 bit broadcast wave format, but with the R128 loudness standard.
The indomitable Horus and Hapi, the gods of analog circuitry from Merging Technologies. (Photo: Maurice Engler)
They must also adapt it to the uncertainties of the creation, removing a measure here, adding another one there. Once this work is done, the nearly finalized files – with changes made up until the last minute – are sent to Merging Technologies’ Ovation system, which then takes over and distributes them through the labyrinth of the DANTE network.
The festival chorus is captured by Shure KSM9s. (Photo: Claude Cellier, Merging Technologies)
Priority was placed on the miking and intelligibility of the various choirs, as well as that of the jazz big band, accompanied by harmonies,percussionists… all via radio! This amounts to 324 wireless channels. For the record, in 1977, there was only one, while there were 86 in 1999.
In fact, looking at the pictures from that year, those are all we see! Extras in the show followed the choir closely around the arena carrying mic booms equipped with MKH Series microphones coupled with Sennheiser SK50 wireless transmitters. Topped with Rycote windscreens, these booms looked like gremlins!
This year, 80 KSM9 microphones – a condenser capsule dedicated to vocals from the American brand Shure – were used for this purpose. They are distributed on 40 stands.
Eight Shure AXT630 active splitters and 160 AD4Q 4-channel receivers, shown during the preparation of the racks at Dushow; some of them are still missing! (Photo: Ludo Maurin)
The close miking was carried out using all microphones from the Danish brand DPA. These comprised 22 black model 4060 mics, 82 flesh-colored 4060 mics, and 75 model 4066 headset mics for the vocals, as well as 64 model 4099 mics with appropriate clips for the brass, strings, woodwinds and percussion that made up the different harmonies or the big band.
Pierre André Delapraz, whose story we will tell later, surrounded by the disabled messenger who this year will be a female messenger with a magic orthopedic prosthesis – as she will represent Switzerland at the Paralympic games – and two soloists who interpret the lyoba. Thierry Dussey helped him greatly with this work.
Do you remember, 20 years ago, when you were only 10 or so? Pierre André in 1999, with an SK50 in his hand and a fur windjammer to keep the wind out of the capsule! (Photo: Pierre André Delapraz)
The responsibility for the RF spectrum in the arena lay with Chris Hauri, assisted by Arnaud Dalla-Rosa, who is used to the challenges of the Swiss television RTS, and by their brave colleagues who were in charge of the equipment. The regulations (the authorized UHF band ranges from 470 to 698 MHz) are quite similar to those in France, except that channel 34 of the Swiss DTT stopped broadcasting on June 19; but unfortunately, on the other side of the lake is a village full of unwavering Gauls…
French digital terrestrial broadcasting does not stop at the border. How does one manage to fit all these channels in? So far, we’ve only talked about wireless microphones, but there are also 40 carrier frequencies for the in-ear monitors! The only solution, as Chris tells me, was to use digital transmission technology, because it generates far fewer intermodulation products.
The equipment area, located at the Théâtre du reflet. For monitoring via Wavetool, a fiber optic connection was run between the two sites. From left to right: Thibault Mecheroub, Baptiste Quillet, Arnaud Dalla-Rosa and Chris Hauri. A special mention goes to Raph, Mathias, Christian and Willy who were in charge of equipping the extras at the other sites (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson).
The Shure Axient Digital system was chosen because Swiss technical support guaranteed the system’s functionality and the ease of implementation made all the difference.
The continuous monitoring of the two AXT600s, combined with Wireless Workbench 6 – the software used for frequency plan management, optimization and calculation – allows a more relaxed approach to the vastness of the system, and especially to be more reactive in the event of a problem.
We left 350 kHz of spacing between each carrier for the microphones, but we calculated five different frequency plans for the 40 channels of analog transmission, received by 110 Wysicom MPR50 beltpacks and 20 beltpacks of the Shure PSM1000 Series. To avoid any spectrum pollution, we used filters with a width of 10 MHz.
stages, on which we placed a full range omnidirectional tri-pole antenna. As for the reception area, it corresponds to the entire arena, plus the remote equipment sites. We positioned nine directional antennas from Wysicom and we used RF-over-Fiber technology via their MFL system, to transmit the signal without loss.
In addition to this spectral congestion, there were also six FM transmitters, of 5 watts each, to carry clicks, cues and orchestra playback to the ears of each performer. A small gesture for the planet, 352 batteries distributed over 44 chargers allowed us to avoid excessive battery consumption… Thanks to the producers of the show for thinking about that.
Pierre André, our senior technician, with Flora and little Julie. (Photo: Pierre André Delapraz)
We can not finish this RF section without Chris’s favorites. The first is technical, the second is human. Let’s start with the Wavetool monitoring system, which allowed us to listen to all the little secrets of all these channels, as the equipment zones were separated by at least 700 meters.
And let’s conclude with the story of Pierre André Delapraz, a retired technician. To equip this whole event, the production called on many volunteers. Based on his experience in 1999, when he equipped the main character – the child Flore – he asked once again to be part of the sound team.
His wish was granted and in 2019 he got to equip little Julie. The pictures speak for themselves. Twenty years later, the now 27-year-old Flore, accompanied by Julie, takes a break with Papa Pierre. Many thanks to Chris for telling us this beautiful story, and to Pierre for having exhumed from his personal archives all his great photos from ’99.
Finally, the mixing
Five a.m. and I’m shivering. In the ashtray my cigarettes are all smoked… This is for the illustrious unnamed gentleman from the last century, who will perhaps recognize himself (Photo: Pierre Andre Delapraz)
A Yamaha PM3500 – could I be mistaken about the year? Considering the ashtray on the board, I believe so!
You pick the best and do it again 20 years later. This time, out went the analog consoles to make way for the digital Rolls-Royce of the same brand: the Rivage family, with mama PM10 and little sister PM7.
Three PM10s pre-mix the choir of the festival, the child protectors, the percussionists and the ensemble, under the attentive ears of Julien Fehlmann and his accomplice Samuel Chapuis.
These three PM10s alone beat the record for the highest number of inputs. 288 x 3 = 844!
The four stereo stems are distributed via the DANTE network to the five PM7 consoles in the FoH positions concealed at the East, West, North, South and on the Field of Play.
2 RTwo Rio3224-D2s, two Ro8-Ds, an AVB7 toolbox from Auvitran and two uninterruptible power supplies. This rack was cloned five times, one for each FoH. (Photo: Ludo Maurin)
With their respective two Rio3224-D2s, each is independently responsible for the sound of its own stage, as well as for the management of the in-ear monitors of the musicians present there.
Boris Gerber, assisted by Daniel Laurent, was in charge of the amplification of the FoP through the two rings of CAL from his 195 scene-memory programs. He tells me that the Dugan technology onboard the console was a great help to him in automatically opening the microphones of the various main characters, with very risky operations!
This is not to mention the hours of Virtual Soundcheck that were made necessary by the weather conditions. This was made possible by the implementation of the Nuendo system, which recorded all the sources every evening and, above all, by the transport of the signal via the Dante network.
Just for the fun of it, let’s play: How many walnut burl strips do you see?
The deployment of such an infrastructure – nine PM consoles, two Nuage systems, 14 Rio3224-D2s and, additionally, eight Ro8-Ds to distribute some signals left and right – is a real challenge for the brand of the triple-tuning-fork, and it did not hesitate to send its R&D team there to collect valuable information from their users in order to code the next version.
Jean-Pierre Decollogny (far left), sales manager for pro audio and installation in Switzerland for Yamaha; Boris Gerber, sound engineer (second from left); On the far right is Keigo Hatano, Business Planning Manager for the Yamaha Pro Audio Division. The two in the middle are Minkyeong Kwon (third from left) and Takeshi Nonaka, the programmers who create the code for the future developments. You may never get to meet these two, but it is thanks to them that your consoles are so intuitive and flexible and your plug-ins are so close to reality (Eventide Harmonizer, tc electronic M6000, Neve preamp, etc.). (Photo: Emmanuelle Husson)
In fact, to become as operational as possible, the entire team was provided with personalized training at Hyperson, led by Andy Cooper and Delphine Hannotin freshly hired.
With this production and this series of consoles, Yamaha proves that it has once again become a key player in pro audio.
From left to right: Samuel Chapuis, David Weber, Andy Cooper, Delphine Hannotin, Greg Baumann, Benoit Vicq, Boris Gerber, Karim Pandolfo, Marco Nuesch, Daniel Laurent, Chris Hauri, Malvina Rota, Gwenael Bonfanti, Jean-Pierre Decollogny and Benjamin Boulian. In the back: Julien Fehlmann, Kevin Koch, Bruant Perrinjaquet, Colin Roquier. This picture was taken at Hyperson’s headquarters. (Photo: Yamaha)
This concludes the audio section of this incredible event, which harnessed the know-how and expertise of many audio professionals. A special thanks goes to the experts from Dushow who took the time to answer my questions and who, above all, accompanied Audioconsulting in this ambitious project: François Soutenet, Benoit Soutenet, Anthony Robert, Federico Barco-Cruz, Hugo Girard and Ludovic Morin.
The second part will be dedicated to the invisible people. If I tell you about the intercoms, the network and the interoperability… would you run away or come back? You’re right. See you in a few days, there’s a lot of heavy stuff!
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