The live-to-air production of Verdi’s opera Aida am Rhein (Aida on the Rhine) staged recently by Swiss TV called on a large digital audio network comprising numerous Stagetec systems including three digital mixing consoles.

Only the third live opera production where the individual scenes only come together to form a whole on viewers’ television screens, the piece used various suites, terraces and rooms at the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois, the banks of the Rhine around the Mittlere Brücke and even on ships decks and pontoons on the Rhine – making it a considerablr logistic and technical achievement.

Currently between its US and European legs, Australian surf/roots artist Xavier Rudd's Koonyum Sun world tour is maintining its use of an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console for monitor duties.

The tour takes the UK, North America, Australia and Europe, with the European and US legs of the tour handled by Concert Sound Clair and Clair Brothers – both of which have provided an Eclipse console. When the tour returns to Europe in November, it will use a pair of Eclipses from Concert Sound supplied by Red Square Audio.

Expanding its hire stock to meet an increasing workload, UK PA company Amber Audio has taken two Digidesign SC48 Venue digital consoles, as well as a d&b audiotechnik Q1 line array with J-Sub and B4-Sub cardioid subs.

Alan Burgess turned to theatre, event and broadcast systems specialist Orbital, following advice on line-arrays and consoles that would meet its criteria for rider-friendly brands. ‘The Q1 system is our first line array – we’ve used them before, but have had to hire them in,' Burgess says. 'Having our own line array ups the scale of project we can handle from stock. It gives us the sonic quality that we value, and puts us in a more rider-friendly position, so we can respond positively to specific Q1 requests, whether from engineers, production companies or venues.

Claiming a 45 per cent reduction in power usage over alternative systems, the loudspeakers at this summer’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montréal helped the Green Stage deliver on its environmental promise.

With sponsorship as well as equipment from Sennheiser Canada, it was energy-efficient K-array loudspeaker and subwoofer technology and the Innovason Eclipse all-in-one console and signal processor that helped keep things green.

Their 2010 European Summer Tour marks the reformation of Irish rock band, The Cranberries. New at the monitor desk, engineer Oliver Waring took station at a DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console.

‘I’ve been working with The Cranberries for a couple of months now and I’d inherited a console from another manufacturer that wasn’t my first choice,’ he says. ‘I changed to the SD8 and at the first soundcheck, and after just one song, the band commented how different it sounded – that it was a lot crisper, a lot clearer and they knew straight away that something had changed.’

Having joined Lawo in 2007 as a member of the Product Management Team, Christian Struck has now become the mc² series Product Manager under Senior Product Manager Felix Krückels. Struck’s foremost task in his new field of activity will be the supervision of R&D for the mc² series.

Struck graduated as a Tonmeister (Sound Engineer with diploma) at the University for Music in Detmold, Germany. Since 2005 he has been working as freelance Tonmeister, handling productions such as the Big Band at the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt.

More: www.lawo.de

Two match days before the end of the German football season, FC Bayern München and FC Schalke 04 were tied at the top of the Bundesliga – until the last game. Watched by a large TV audience, the game was broadcast from Livecast TV Produktion’s two new OB vans. For the audio, they used Lawo mixing consoles.

‘The term basic feed means that we produce video and audio signals, which are then made available to all legitimate buyers,’ explains Harald Hübner, manager at Livecast TV. ‘The video signal is produced with a minimum of seven cameras, while the audio is mixed using Lawo mc²56 consoles. Buyers of our output include, for example, Sky, ARD’s Sportschau, and several other international broadcasters – our goal is to give them the highest possible quality.’

The West Yorkshire Playhouse (WYP) is a producing theatre that creates shows for both in-house production and national touring, and also collaborates with other major regional theatres. A number of shows have transferred from the theatre’s home in central Leeds to the West End from, the most recent being Loserville, which premiered at London’s Garrick Theatre in October 2012.

The Playhouse also provides one of the UK’s most comprehensive arts education programmes, working with schools and young people in addition to offering a range of initiatives for adults and community groups. It is also a significant local employer with in excess of 200 staff representing every working discipline necessary to operate a contemporary theatre.

The WYP houses two performance spaces – the 350-seat Courtyard and the main Quarry theatre, which seats 750. Until recently, the Quarry was equipped with a large analogue mixing console, whose use was declining in favour of digital consoles. The WYP had previously hired DiGiCo SD8 consoles for its 2009 and 2010 Christmas programmes, and this experience in tandem with an ongoing relationship with Autograph Sales & Installations has seen the facility upgrade its installed mixing console systems.

As the DiGiCo SD8s did not provide enough inputs overall, the WYP hired a DiGiCo SD10 from Autograph for its 2011 production of Annie, designed by Sebastian Frost. The same FOH set-up remained in place for the next show, giving the house technical team the ideal opportunity to properly evaluate the SD10 in a real-world working environment. The desk proved itself up to the many and various demands likely to made of it in a busy theatre, and Autograph was requested to supply and commission a new SD10 to the Playhouse during a short ‘dark’ period. The new console was first used on Loserville in Leeds, prior to transfer of the production to the West End.

The equipment supplied includes a DiGiCo SD10 control surface plus two SD Racks, eight 8-input cards and four 8-output cards, giving a system total of 64 mic/line inputs and 32 multi-purpose outputs which can be used in any configuration between the two racks as required by individual projects. This combination of inputs and outputs will handle the majority of shows produced at the Playhouse, but there is spare capacity within the SD Racks allowing the system to be expanded if necessary.

The SD10 system also includes a pair of ADAT cards to allow simple connection to the Playhouse’s QLab show control system and playback media, as well as two AES input/output cards providing digital connection to the in-house Yamaha DME64. On initial installation the racks are connected to the SD10 via copper Madi links, but those will in the future be replaced by fibre-optic cables using the integrated Optocore system.

‘Although we have experience with some DiGiCo consoles through previous hires this is our first foray into digital ownership, and thanks to Autograph the transition has been almost painless, says Martin Pickersgill, Head of Sound for the Playhouse. ‘Having an SD10 here for Annie convinced us that it was the way to go and I’m happy that we made a good decision’. He continued, ‘The update that Chris from Autograph installed for us recently has extended the functionality still further and our current show [The Wind In The Willows, designed by Mic Pool] will be the most comprehensive test for the SD10 yet, one I’m sure it will pass with ease’.

The Academy Music Group has extended its use of Avid Venue consoles with a new round of club installations across the UK.

The five Avid Venue SC48 consoles were purchased from Adlib Solutions in Liverpool and installed at O2 ABC Glasgow, O2 Academy Liverpool, O2 Academy Birmingham, O2 Academy Oxford and O2 Academy Newcastle. These are in addition to the Venue Profile Systems already installed at O2 Academy venues in Bristol, Islington (London) and Oxford.

AMG is the leading owner and operator of live music and club venues in the UK, with shows and events across a network of O2 Academy venues nationwide.

‘The familiarity that many touring engineers have with the board means that it is a great desk to have in our selection of in-house equipment, improving the already high standard of production services across the group,’ says AMG Group Technical Manager, Ed Jackson.

‘They are a one flightcase solution,’ he adds. ‘In some venues, where space is limited or when we have to provide a full console set up alongside a touring desk, they fit in the space required. The boards were chosen so they can be used in both FOH and monitor positions. Their small footprint means that they can be moved around and used in our venues of varying capacities. Visiting engineers touring on larger shows are often able to bring their own boards, but the smaller tours and support bands don’t and we need to be able to provide for them.’

The ability to record 32 channels over FireWire to a laptop running Pro Tools 10 was another attractive feature: ‘That’s been something that we wanted to achieve in-house for a considerable length of time, so we’re delighted to make this a reality for artists playing our venues,’ Jackson says, ‘Even as recently as a few years ago, to record 32 channels would have required a [remote broadcast] truck, a separate multicore, splits and more. To be able to turn up to a show with a laptop and plug it in with one cable and record on an industry-standard platform means that the costs have been reduced significantly, making recording for newer bands and independent artists a viable option on a smaller budget.

’We were able to get the SC48s set up before sending them out to the venues so that they were able to use them straight away,’ Jackson concludes. ‘They opened the cases, plugged them in and off they went. Since they’ve used the extra features on the SC48s, all of the feedback has been positive.’

More: www.avid.com

Following the launch of Waves' M-Waves module for Allen & Heath’s iLive digital mixing system at London's Plasa show, the two manufacturers are staging interactive online seminars to provide information and technical understanding about the card and the Waves SoundGrid protocol in general.

The sessions will be held on 1 December 2011 and are aimed at engineers, audio consultants, rental companies and installation firms. There will be two webinars to suit different time zones. Additional sessions may be offered due to high demand.

These sessions will start with an overview of the iLive series, followed by a detailed discussion on installing the M-Waves module and configuring the Waves software. Also covered will be how SoundGrid can help with multitrack audio recording and playback during virtual soundcheck applications. Experts from both Allen & Heath and Waves will also be online to answer questions.

Register: www.allen-heath.com