The opera house at Glyndebourne has hosted an annual summer festival of world-class productions since 1934 and enters its 2025 season with refreshed audio technologies in play, including a Solid State Logic Live L550 Plus mixing console, a pair of L100 Plus desks and four stageboxes capable of handling up to 112 inputs.
The upgrade project provided an opportunity to review of the installed recording, broadcast, sound reinforcement, and production communications systems. With a network infrastructure already in place, Dante compatibility was a key requirement for any audio component. ‘We’re not really interested in buying anything that isn’t network based,’ confirms Glyndebourne Productions Head of Sound & Video, Jonathan Moss. ‘It all comes down to how these things work together. This is an opera house; there is no front-of-house mix position. our control position is on the side of the stage, one floor up.’
The 1,200-seat venue is equipped with three SB 32.32 stageboxes located in the rack room, with tielines throughout the building. ‘One stagebox handles everything we need across the festival but we rarely use more than 32 inputs on the main stage,’ Moss explains. ‘The second is a spare for any last-minute needs, and the third goes in the pit when we’re recording. We also have an SB 16.8 in the recording room.’
Glyndebourne’s schedule includes daily rehearsals, a full summer festival, an autumn concert and opera season, and international touring productions. ‘Typically, we rehearse in the morning with full technical support – scenery, lighting and sound,’ Moss says. ‘Then we do a turnaround to a different show for the afternoon performance. We throw 40 or 50 people at it to make the changeover happen.’
During rehearsals, one of Glyndebourne’s L100 Plus consoles is positioned in the stalls seating. Chosen for its compact size and lightweight design, the desk is ideal for this kind of application. ‘It’s one of the lighter options on the market,’ says Moss. ‘We use it purely as a remote surface – it only needs mains power and a single cable. No audio passes through it. It’s essentially a programming desk, since the L550 Plus is always running the show.’
A second L100 Plus is located in a small edit room, where audio staff can fine-tune showfiles or resolve mix issues. After each public performance, a new crew arrives overnight to prepare for the next morning’s full technical rehearsal.
On rare occasions, a production requires live mixing from the house. ‘For that, we use a Live Remote Tile with a Solsa (SSL On/Offline Setup Application) set-up,’ Moss says. ‘It’s housed in a small room off the side of the auditorium with an opening window. We don’t usually have someone there for the full show – just for a few cues.’
Glyndebourne Productions evaluated several console options before selecting SSL Live, ultimately drawn to its powerful cue automation. ‘The ability to create scene groups and apply relative changes across cues was a game-changer,’ says Moss. ‘That’s what sold it to us. Oh, and it sounds fantastic – closer to analogue than anything else we tested. The sound quality is excellent, and the usability is great.
‘Fundamentally, all sound desks are sound desks but where it gets interesting and fun is asking “What can it do that a typical desk can’t?”.’
One example is the integration of the stage manager’s comms beltpack with the venue’s ‘god mic’, allowing them to address the stage at the push of a button. Another is the use of GPIO triggers to control foldback muting directly from the prompt desk. ‘These kinds of features make the desk more than just a mixer – they make it part of a fully integrated ecosystem,’ Moss says.
Glyndebourne Productions handles its own in-house recording for marketing purposes and collaborates with Classic FM to distribute its The Organ Room Sessions online. Looking ahead, the team plans to record performances using an SSL System T set-up, which includes Tempest Control App (TCA), a TE2 Tempest Engine and Desktop Fader Tile – all integrated into the venue’s Dante network.
‘The fact that we trigger actions across the network – like starting a recording from a remote location – means we don’t need someone physically present in the record room at all times,’ says Moss. ‘That level of flexibility is incredibly valuable for us in the long term.’
The System T set-up is also future-proof: should larger productions require expanded control, a large-format surface can be added without replacing the existing TCA package.
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