This event was sponsored by six discrete companies - d&b audiotechnik, Shure UK, RTS Telex, Roland Systems Group, TTA and Figure53, best known as the authors of the QLab show control system. It was staged by RADA in their 180-seat Jerwood Vanbrugh theatre.
John Torger Skjelstad from Norway's TTA opened the proceedings with an in-depth discussion of the art of performer tracking and localisation, using as a demonstration the StageTracker system that he authored and which is now in use in many high-profile cultural centres in northern Europe. In a later seminar, John T was joined by a 'virtual' Chris Ashworth, live from his office in Baltimore via a Skype link. Ashworth is the developer of the industry-standard show control software QLab, which has recently integrated with the TTA StageTracker system.
Shure's Tuomo Tolonen tackled the hot potato of spectrum allocation in the UK, bringing to bear all his experience from the BEIRG steering committee and his passion for RF technology. In his second presentation, he revealed the Shure Axient Wireless, an example of a manufacturer responding to genre-threatening changes on a global scale.
The Roland Systems Group aimed its presentations primarily at the non West End theatre community, although the latest use of its M-48 monitoring systems has been by the prominent musical production of We WillRock You. Simon Kenning and Phil Palmer set out to reveal Roland's design philosophy for theatre, which is based on systems integration.
OpenStage was lucky to have a visit from Bosch senior scientist Jeff Berryman, a heavy hitter from the USA who, speaking under the banner of RTS Telex, delivered a masterclass on universal medianet working standards. Currently the subject of intense joint development, these long-awaited standards allowing audio and video equipment from diverse manufacturers to achieve new levels of interoperability with greater ease are intended to revolutionise systems design.
For most of the audience, the highlight of the day was a riveting presentation by d&b tech gurus John Taylor and Steve Jones, who, with great humour and a variety of Blue Peter-style demonstration devices, analysed the anatomy of both line array and point source systems to discover their respective pros and cons.
(Jim Evans)
