One of the most famous faces currently on German television, Barbara Schöneberger appears as a presenter, actress and also a singer. In May 2018 she released her fourth album Eine Frau gibt Auskunft, which she recently performed in a series of ten live shows.
Rental company Event-Net, from Halle (Saale) in central Germany, has been working with the singer since 2008, and been technical service provider for all tours and individual shows. The Event-Net team – headed by MD Kay Schöttner and Technical Department Manager Mathias ‘Hein’ Schroeter – was responsible for the tour’s technical package, stage management and part of the tour management.
In 2004 Event-Net was one of the first German investors in sound systems from Dutch manufacturer Alcons Audio. Since then, a stock of Alcons LR14 and LR16 including BF362 subwoofers has been built in Halle. As a result, all Schöneberger’s previous tours relied on Alcons Alcons LR18 pro-ribbon systems. For the 2019 tour, however, they resorted to the larger LR18 pro-ribbon line-array systems, which could easily be rented from Alcons’ global rental network
‘The Ribbon Network’ in central Germany. For the main PA used 24 Alcons LR18, with LR14 systems covering the side. Alcons RR12 point-source array elements were used as stacking variants for the front fill and, if required, as main PA for the parquet areas. Depending on the location, the BF362 subs were adapted to local requirements through different modes (endfire/cardioid). All systems were powered and controlled by Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
‘With Alcons, all requirements for different venues as well as different music styles with many moderating elements can and could be fulfilled very well’, says Schöttner .‘The pro-ribbon drivers from Alcons Audio always guarantee very good speech intelligibility down to the last rows, even on ranks and balconies, with an extremely homogeneous coverage. I am not aware of any comparable system that is this compact – we were limited to one trailer for the entire production. All line-arrays were transported in cases to make efficient use of the available truck space. Handling and rigging of the systems were effortless. ‘
The first consideration in the run up to the 2019 tour was to use Event Net’s own LR16 system. ‘Given the option to use the new LR18 instead, we rejected that idea. The LR18 systems were provided by ils medientechnik GmbH from Leipzig. Since we did not have our RR12 in stock at this time, Uwe Biesgen from Creativsound in Berlin provided us his systems,’ Schöttner continues.
‘In central Germany, there are now a number of companies that use systems from Alcons Audio,’ he continues. ‘We have been trying to live this platform idea for quite some time, and we are getting better and better. Event-Net is a relatively small rental company. Our partner companies in the Ribbon Network are also, at least in central Germany, small and medium-sized rental and technical companies, mostly specialized in different areas. Accordingly, the requirements for the systems differ. In the future, we and the above-mentioned partner companies will not only make investment decisions based on our own needs, but also on the availability of the corresponding technology in the network of our partners in Central Germany. The Ribbon Network works and that’s great.’
Uwe Biesgen from Creativsound accompanied the Schöneberger tour as a sound engineer and supervised the FOH. The other audio equipment, as well as the sound staff – PA system engineer Hendrik Pfeiffer, monitor technician Henning Dittmann and technical production manager Mathias ‘Hein’ Schroeter – were provided by Event-Net. Kay Schöttner himself was on the tour as tour manager.
