Difficulties encountered with the technical sound production of Opera Wrocławska’s first streamed production – an orchestral version of Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera Straszny dwór – in 2020 have prompted the use of a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system that has ‘changed everything’ for the company’s audio department.
The problems previously facing the venue’s sound department saw Grzegorz Bieńko, Sebastian Jarus and Jakub Krzysiek – with no experience of streaming productions – using three Yamaha DM2000 mixing consoles, that were not ideal for adapting to streamed shows. ‘The DM2000 is still a great audio consoles for theatrical use but, due to its age and facilities, it was difficult for us to deliver the best quality for a live stream,’ Bieńko says.
The orchestra, choir and soloists were attempting to create one coherent performance, but with every musician and vocalist having to maintain physical distancing of at least 1m from each other. To make things more difficult, the production was arranged in a 360º circle; spill between different sections into the microphones of others was clearly going to be one of the technical obstacles.
Bieńko, Jarus and Krzysiek filled the six expansion slots of each DM2000 with Yamaha mini-YGDAI cards, which allowed them to network the consoles via Dante, routing the signals to the opera house’s studio where the live mix took place. The basic feed for the live mix comprised more than 100 channels.
The production proved a success for Opera Wrocław, but it was obvious that improvements were needed, to simplify the audio set-up and deliver better quality sound to the online audience. In response, Wrocław-based PogoArt supplied the Yamaha Rivage PM7, which was put to work on a production of Puccini’s La Bohème, and the sound team immediately noticed a huge technological advance.
‘They had worked with Yamaha CL and QL series consoles many times, but the Rivage PM7’s ease of use, ergonomics, technical facilities and sound quality surprised them,’ says PogoArt owner, Slawek Pogorzala. ‘The 96kHz sound, saturation of individual channels at preamp level and exceptional reverb processing, extensive grouping and flexibility of sends (for example a single channel to the Matrix bus) were just the beginning.
‘Tools like the dynamic EQ and the Rupert Neve Designs plug-ins have let the audio team precisely refine the sound heard by the audience, while maintaining the naturally complex dynamics. Even the very fast jumps sung by the female soloists, which had always been a problem for the DM2000s, are handled easily by Rivage PM7.’
Two further features that have benefitted the audio team are the ability of the system to handle straightforward parallel, multitrack recording for streaming, and how it handles virtual soundchecks.
‘Considering the technical challenges, the audio team delivered a remarkable production of Straszny dwór with the three Yamaha DM2000s. But, in comparison, what the Rivage PM7 system delivered has been absolutely fantastic,’ Pogorzala says. ‘It has brought a coherent, precise, nuanced quality to the sound, which truly brings the audio quality of the Opera Wrocławska house to online audiences. Opera Wrocławska has a new star quartet – the three members of the sound team and the Rivage PM7.’
More: www.yamahaproaudio.com
