With music composed by Jim Steinmann – of Meatloaf fame – Berlin’s Theater des Westens is staging a musical production of Polanski’s Tanz de Vampire (Dance of the Vampires). In keeping with the show’s lavish staging, a TiMax Tracker performer tracking system and TiMax SoundHub-S32 delay-matrix are used to add vocal localisation and immersive surround effects.
Sound designer Thomas Strebel (also responsible for the sound design for Elisabeth in Vienna) from Swiss event specialists audiopool specified TiMax processing and automation, having used it extensively in musical theatre productions across Europe. In a personal first, he also chose Turbosound Flex Array for the primary vocal reinforcement and music systems, having been introduced to the speaker system by Robin Whittaker, Director of TiMax developer Out Board.
The production uses an LCR vocal system comprising three hangs of TFA-600H boxes, while a separate LR music system uses TFA600H and TFA600HW cabinets plus aux-fed TFS-900B and TFS-600L subs. Upstage was a d&b Q7 split LCR system to anchor the vocals, with E3s for front fill. Balcony delay uses Meyer UP1 speakers, while distributed d&b E0s provide surround effects. Amplification is provided by Lab.gruppen PLMs, and the PA system was supplied by Bernd Schmitz of FeedBack Show Systems & Service.
These discrete speaker channels are matrixed from a 32x32 TiMax2 SoundHub matrix via analogue I/O, which receives 13 Sennheiser radio mic channel direct outs plus band and effects submixes from the house Cadac J-Type console.
A TiMax Tracker system controls the TiMax SoundHub to continuously localise the vocals by seamlessly morphing matrixed-delays from each mic to the distributed vocal PA as the actors moved around stage. Each actor uses a miniature TT-Tag transmitting radar-frequency UWB signals to a network of six TT Sensors distributed around the stage and auditorium. The multiple view sensor deployment has the advantage of inherent redundancy as only two TT Sensors need to see a Tag at any time for precision (10cm/6-in) tracking to be achieved in real time.
The TiMax SoundHub and Tracker systems were supplied by German production rental company Sugar Veranstaltungstechnik.
Following a critically-acclaimed year-long run, the production has been extended to run to January 2013.
