Among the most renowned opera houses in Europe, the Frankfurt Opera recently added d&b Soundscape technology to its d&b audio system. A d&b DS100 Signal engine was purchased in time for the 2019/2020 season, and the staging of a world premiere at the Bockenheimer Depot – Frankfurt Opera’s second venue.

‘It was a spatially complex work, with moving actors and an orchestra spread across the stage’ explains sound engineer, Margit Baruschka. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic the production was postponed to 2021. The decision was then made to move the entire Soundscape system to the Frankfurt Opera. Here it could be used to adapt some of the regular programme to accommodate social distancing requirements.

Producer, musician, recording and mixing engineer FedaRoots (Fede Soto Roland) has recently installed a new ASP8024-HE console in his Negril Music Studio. Based in Buenos Aires yet inspired by the music styles of Jamaica – from reggae and ska to dancehall – the desk marks culmination of a four-year move towards analogue working, and represents the beginning of a new era for the studio and its clients.

FedaRoots opened the studio in 2017 with an almost exclusively digital set-up. Over the years, he released more than 110 songs, including three well-received Spanish Tributes to Gregory Isaacs. ‘As I got more and more involved in the production of albums and singles, I became more aware of the difference of having a hybrid set-up. So after a few years I decided to add more hardware,’ he explains.

A forward-thinking music company and boutique record label based in the Dominican Republic, FAMA has a strong focus on artist development – a priority that has seen the company open a recording complex to accommodate creative retreats and songwriting camps.

The facility occupies three-storey luxury premises in Santo Domingo’s historic Colonial District with acoustic and aesthetic studio design by John Storyk’s World Studio Design Group (WSDG).

The EBU’s Eurovision Song Contest 2021 (ESC) in Rotterdam promises to be a grand event despite social distancing regulations. Although usually a single, shared by millions of television viewers in Europe and beyond, this year kicked off with a Turquoise Carpet event, where the semi-finalists were introduced Cannes-style.

The ‘be open, be positive’ slogan used by Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, was taken to heart by host broadcasters NPO, NOS and Avrotross, as well as OB companies NEP and United (EMG), which covered the event.

To ensure high-quality and reliable sound, NEP equipped its twin UHD1 and UHD2 OB trucks with 64-fader Lawo mc²56 consoles, Nova router cores and VSM for intuitive control of the broadcast chain. The two OBs set up as main and backup for seamless protection switching.

A short distance from Truro in England’s west country, Perranporth’s Cube Recording Studio has opened a new room, brining equipped a 32-channel Solid State Logic Origin analogue in-line mixing console to the Cornwall recording community. Opened in early 2021, Cube Recording’s new Studio B includes a live room and vocal booth, with 48 analogue tielines connecting the control room to the larger Studio A live tracking space.

‘I decided to build a studio during lockdown – which was hilarious,’ says studio facility owner, Gareth Young.