To celebrate 25 years of the hit musical The Phantom of the Opera, a special production was staged recently at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with three sell-out performances. The complex production, also broadcast live to more than 1400 theaters in Europe and the US, was anchored by advanced digital mixing technologies from HARMAN’s Studer brand.
Aside from the enormous amount of rehearsal time required, the Phantom production tasked broadcast production company, Red TX with mixing 172 channels of audio - spread across four stage boxes - on its Score Live-powered HARMAN’s Studer Vista 8 digital console, which sits at the heart of the company’s new RED II production vehicle.
“This is technically the highest channel count we have ever run from one truck,” confirmed Red TX managing director, Ian Dyckhoff. “It creates a bit of added pressure, but having so much combined experience between us is a real bonus.”
Dyckhoff added that in the past this high channel count would have required a second production vehicle. “But the Studer desk has enough inputs to surround mix everything independently. Thanks to the Vista 8, we can do it in one.”
Three recording stems were set up to record in 5.1 and stereo (for cinema) and 5.0 for other TV broadcasts. Rather than taking an automatic stereo down mix, Red TX created a separate stereo mix, providing greater control, for cinemas unable to take surround sound.
Each Studer HD interface card can carry up to 192 channels in Vista systems at sampling rates of up to 96kHz. The system automatically detects newly inserted audio cards and assigns the required number of audio channels to them via the front panel ‘Reconfig’ button.
In fact RED II’s Studer environment, with D21m digital I/O frames and stage boxes, is configured to enable 192 channels to be recorded from the desk, with three MADI streams, 48 channels of AES (24 stereo) and 32 line.
Red TX had arrived at the Royal Albert Hall several days before the show for line checks, rigging tests and to set up templates. With a cast and orchestra of more than 200, the extended prep time was certainly needed, as the show proved challenging.
Working alongside live sound company, Autograph Sound, who supplied separate radio microphone, choir and orchestra mixes to bring all the feeds into the truck independently, the RED II crew used 57 snapshots on the Vista 8, mostly for the orchestral arrangements. “We used a standard 2-second cross fade on the snapshots and they were as smooth as silk,” said main sound engineer, Tim Summerhayes,
The production itself was a major success. In addition to the live audiences at Royal Albert Hall, the show was transmitted live to 1,000 cinemas in the UK, a further 200 in the US and 200 in Europe.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. With total worldwide box office receipts of more than $5.1 billion, Phantom is the highest-grossing entertainment event of all time. It had been enjoyed by more than 130 million people in 145 cities worldwide as of 2011.
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Header Photo Credit: Alastair Muir