The Königssaal (Royal Hall) of Heidelberg Palace provided the backdrop for a recent concert performance by around 50 musicians from the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra that was livestreamed to Facebook and YouTube using an Allen & Heath dLive system

The performance was the centrepiece of a cultural evening staged by Heidelberg Theatre and Orchestra, in partnership with the town’s municipal authority, who called on full-service A/V rental company Konferenztechnik Kiel for complete audio, video, lighting and streaming.

Freelance audio engineer Eric Siemens headed the sound team, supported by mic tech Florian Montabaur and by Martin Hildebrand, who directed the sound and video via intercom.

Hildebrand mixed the performance himself using an A&H dLive C3500 Surface, paired with a CDM48 MixRack to manage the 59 inputs from the musicians, ambience and wireless mics. The event was also recorded in HD, with multitrack audio captured via a Waves3 card.

Originally planned as an outdoor event in the Heidelberg Palace grounds, but the weather forced a rapid move to the indoor venue, as Hildebrand recalls: ‘The dLive’s flexible routing made the move very easy, but we were left with a very short time for soundcheck, which was a challenge. We had to soundcheck around 50 musicians in 15 minutes, but because A&H pre-sets the gain at 27dB I didn’t need to touch the gain for most of them. The DCA Spill function was also very helpful for accessing the individual channels quickly.’

Another consideration for Hildebrand was the trumpet performance and interview that opened the event from the battlements of a tower 100m from the Königssaal. To accommodate this, he ran a portable DX168 expander up to the tower for local I/O with another DX168 in the main performance area extending the I/O capability of the CDM48.

Feedback on the event’s audio and video quality has been positive, raising the possibility of similar evenings being held in the future.