Richard Nowell Sound Services Ltd (RNSS) designed the audio systems this year at Aldeburgh, and were faced with a number of challenges for the Peter Grimes staging, of which coordinating an orchestra and a festival chorus live on a windy beach were just the start. The chorus and orchestra could see each other, but whether they would be able to hear each other was always going to be at the mercy of the elements to some extent, particularly the wind blowing in off the North Sea.
Furthermore, to enhance the important role the power of the sea plays in the narrative, the organisers wanted nothing visible to come between the audience on the beach and the sea itself, and so there was no option to hang PA speakers from cranes or set frames. Even placing the seating and set on the shingle beach was difficult - RNSS were advised that Aldeburgh beach might have 'unexploded ordnance' buried in it from wartime military defences, so it was not going to be possible to sink support structures into the beach to any useful depth.
In the end, RNSS resolved the problems in a variety of ways. The orchestral score and some of the chorus parts in the opera were pre-recorded at nearby Snape Maltings a week before the show and triggered live on the night, although many of the more important choral parts and all of the principals still sang live. Shure in-ear monitoring was used to ensure that the key performers could hear the orchestral recordings and chorus, and the main PA speakers were mounted under the stage with additional, suitably delayed fill-in speakers on the beach (mounted on custom brackets) so that the audience could hear everything, no matter how inclement the weather chose to be on the night.
RNSS chose Shure products for all of the 30 channels of RF mics they used at the event, drawing on UHF-R+ systems from their own stock, as well as 62 channels of PSM1000 in-ear monitoring, and SDUK Pro Audio Group manager Tuomo Tolonen was on hand in the run-up to the performance to offer technical support.
The PSM1000s proved their worth in this most challenging of performance locations. "For RNSS, the only choice for radio mics and IEMs was Shure," explains Richard Nowell, founder of RNSS. "Tuomo Tolonen provided invaluable backup and technical expertise, and what few issues we experienced on-site were quickly resolved. The project seems to have been a complete success, and all concerned were delighted."
(Jim Evans)
