An Allen & Heath dLive system recently mixed a special performance by around 50 musicians from the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, livestreamed against the sumptuous backdrop of the Königssaal (Royal Hall), within the walls of the historic Heidelberg Palace.
The performance was the centrepiece of a cultural evening on July the 10th, staged by Heidelberg Theatre and Orchestra in partnership with the town’s municipal authority and livestreamed to Facebook and YouTube audiences. Full-service AV rental company, Konferenztechnik Kiel supplied the complete audio, video, lighting and streaming solution for the event.
Freelance Audio Engineer, Eric Siemens headed up the sound team, ably supported by mic tech, Florian Montabaur, and by Martin Hildebrand, who directed the sound and video via intercom. Siemens mixed the performance himself, choosing a dLive C3500 Surface, teamed 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 Palace grounds, a sudden change in the weather necessitated a rapid move to the indoor venue, as Siemens recalled: “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 Siemens was a trumpet performance and interview, which opened the event from the battlements of a tower, some 100m from the Königssaal. Siemens 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 very positive, raising the possibility of similar evenings in the future.
