Stage Tec’s flagship Aurus platinum mixing system has made its debut as an FOH console in China at a concert with music by Zhang Hong Guang, one of China’s most popular composers performed in front of an audience of 18,000 at the Cadillac Arena in Beijing.
The Berlin-based manufacturer’s set-up used a 32-fader mixing surface integrated into a Nexus network with six Base Devices and a Star router. CCTV, China’s national state broadcaster, recorded the event, which aired on the CCTV-3 music and entertainment channel. IFTT was the technical service provider.
The event saw a 60-piece orchestra, a choir of 50 singers, a band with 11 musicians, 16 soloists perform, along with two presenters – dictating a large number of audio channels and buses be available. The Aurus VCA hierarchy proved to be essential for managing more than 200 mix channels and 80 buses with just 32 faders. It enables instruments to be grouped, allowing the sound engineer to keep an overview. VCAs are mixed instead of individual channels, combined with the Aurus spill function. The spill function simplifies work during live mixes and provides rapid access to all signals.
To accommodate the large number of channels, the Aurus platinum was fully populated with seven powerful RMDQ DSP units. The microphone feeds were converted to digital without analogue preamplification directly at the Nexus’ mic inputs with 32-bit resolution using the proprietary True Match process. Sixteen XMic microphone boards with eight channels each i.e. 128 in total were installed in the Nexus Base Devices for the purpose.
‘Stage Tec is known for reliability and safety, and for the best audio quality – that’s why we use Stage Tec technology at important events like the CCTV gala show as well as in studios and other live broadcast applications,’ explains CCTV Audio Department VP, Mr Chen. ‘We rely on Stage Tec’s audio excellence.’
A second performance in Shenzhen in Southeast China is planned for the end of the year. Zhang Hong Guang is a famous composer of Chinese opera and dance theatre, and also writes film and television scores as well as pop and ethnic music. The Cadillac Arena was opened in 2008 and hosted the Olympic basketball tournament in the same year. It will serve as the ice hockey venue during the winter Olympics in 2022.
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