The Opera House was comprehensively rebuilt in the late 90s, and further work over the past few years had seen the installation of an in-house broadcast centre and an associated sound control room. But following the purchase of DVD label Opus Arte in 2007, the plan has been to expand the number of performances at the ROH that are recorded for subsequent release on DVD with a 5.1 surround soundtrack, and the former sound control room, which wasn't equipped for surround monitoring and mixing, became a liability.
Now a sizable replacement sound control room/audio broadcast centre for radio, TV, and satellite live-to-cinema transmissions has been created, based around a Studer Vista console, B&W 802 monitors, and Pyramix. "We upgraded the Pyramix systems to version six at the same time," explains the ROH's broadcast engineer Mark Thackeray. "Kevin McCue from eMerging, who helped to install Pyramix here originally, took care of it for us."
(Jim Evans)
