Vienna Festival Opening 2002
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Sound Art Service Vienna (SAS), an Austrian rental company working exclusively with Meyer Sound products, recently supplied a line array system from Meyer Sound's M Series for the Vienna Festival Opening 2002 on May 10. SAS, which put the system together in collaboration with the Wiener Festwochen (WFW) audio department, has provided Meyer Sound loudspeakers for the festival for the last five years. This year's Festival Opening program - entitled 'Gone With The Wind' - featured the Radio Symphonie Orchester Vienna conducted by Julius Rudel, while guest stars included Bryan Ferry, Nancy Wilson and the Palastorchester with Max Raabe. Last year an M3D Line Array system was used for the opening, and this year sound designer Adolf Toegel from the WFW decided to add the newly-introduced M2D Compact Curvilinear Array loudspeaker to provide nearfield coverage. As the stage was more than 45m wide, Toegel chose not to use a left-right stereo setup. Instead he divided the sound system into five functional loudspeaker groups that could be addressed separately through a 6in/10out AKG DSP 610 matrix. This provided a delay on every crosspoint and allowed him to time-align every part of the stage to each loudspeaker group so that the directional image could be maintained over the entire listening area. Singers and narrators were given a narrow stage center image; the jazz band also had a stage center image; the Max Raabe Band had stage center and stage left images with video stage left and the orchestra stage right. "The main reason for this design was the M3Ds with their precise 90 degree coverage pattern." says SAS' Erich Dorfinger who mixed the show. The sound system included ten M3Ds that were subhired by SAS from Slovakian PA company Oksa Production to supplement those owned by the WFW. The M3Ds were complemented by four M2Ds from Meyer Sound's Austrian distributor, ATEC. All other Meyer Sound loudspeakers were provided by SAS. Seven M3Ds were flown as the main system, stage right, to minimize problems with low frequency reflection. The upper three M3Ds were flown as a tight pack for long throw, with the lower four having a one-degree angle between the cabinets. One M3D was flown in the stage roof with a further two built into the stage risers. Eight M3Ds provided by the WFW were used as the main system stage left, with the upper four flown as a tight pack for long throw, the lower four once again having a one-degree angle between the cabinets. The overall system was divided into five zones comprising the main systems stage left and right, the central M3D, and each of the M3Ds on stage. Four M2Ds were used as stage frontfills with four 650-P High-Power subwoofers positioned underneath the stage and four CQ-2 Narrow Coverage Main loudspeakers as fills for the VIP area. Two clusters of two MSL-6 Horn-Loaded High-Q Main loudspeakers and two 650-Ps were used as the first delay line on towers 50m from the stage, with two clusters of three MSL-4 Horn-Loaded Long-Throw loudspeakers used a further 70m away. Eight UM-1A and two UM-1P Narrow Coverage Stage Monitors were also used, with a pair of HM-1s as control room monitors for the pre mix. The free admission opening ceremony, attended by 40,000 people and broadcast live on Austrian TV, was held in the Rathausplatz, a square outside the 19th century Vienna City Hall. "It has a fabulous ambience," says Dorfinger. "The square has space for thousands of people and it's used for different kinds of events during the year." Dorfinger was assisted at the event by system engineer Stefan Schlögl and system technician Robert Bastecky, both from SAS. The Vienna Festival showcases 38 productions from 14 countries throughout May and June, offering as many as 156 performances, with a total availability of 75,000 tickets. The opening ceremony was dedicated to Austrian and German composers who immigrated to the US in the 30s, finding worldwide fame as the creators of scores for celebrated Hollywood movies. Among the composers commemorated were Nicholas Brodszky, Ernest Gold, Friedrich Hollaender, Herman Hupfeld, Walter Jurmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner and Kurt Weill, responsible for the scores of films such as Gone with the Wind, Exodus, Love Me Or Leave Me, Deception, Ihre Majestät die Liebe, Ein Lied für Dich, Casablanca. The free of charge Opening Ceremony in Vienna's City Hall Square alternated clips from famous movies projected on a large screen with well-known musical scores performed live by the two orchestras and the vocalists. July, 2002 |
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