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The classical Stravinski Auditorium rocks out in Montreux<br />
venue every year, and as new equipment becomes<br />
available, we find ways to employ it.<br />
What’s involved in the planning process?<br />
When we’re putting together the show<br />
every year, we work with our systems designer,<br />
Martin Reich, and the people from Meyer<br />
Sound to spec out the audio systems, taking<br />
into account any changes in the acoustics of the<br />
venues, the availability of new products and any<br />
feedback from previous shows. They also meet<br />
with the Digidesign people to discuss the mixing<br />
console needs and with the Shure people to<br />
talk about microphones and wireless needs.<br />
Then each venue is modeled using MAPP<br />
<strong>Online</strong> Pro to create a detailed layout of the<br />
systems, including the placement and angles of<br />
the speakers and predictions of the array coverage.<br />
Once we draw up an inventory, we source<br />
the equipment via several regional rental companies.<br />
We have long-term relationships with<br />
these partners as well; we know who’s strong in<br />
what areas and who has what inventory.<br />
Then when setup is completed on location,<br />
we bring in the SIM 3 system to fine-tune the<br />
rigs, using the Galileo for processing.<br />
What kind of challenges do the rooms present?<br />
Stravinsky Auditorium, our main venue, is<br />
always a challenge. It was designed as a classical<br />
hall, with a reverb time of several seconds, and<br />
we try to take that down to about one second.<br />
The acoustic treatment was proposed by John<br />
Meyer and was designed and implemented by<br />
the company that originally built the room’s<br />
acoustics.<br />
The sound regulations in Switzerland are<br />
also a big challenge, and we have to constantly<br />
pay close attention to our levels. The Meyer<br />
line arrays help a lot because we can achieve a<br />
very even coverage with them, and the Galileo<br />
processors, with their considerable processing<br />
power and multiple I/O, enable us to distribute<br />
the sound, time align, filter and EQ the systems<br />
neatly and efficiently.<br />
The festival has a reputation for showcasing<br />
a lot of cutting-edge equipment.<br />
Many of our partners like to showcase new<br />
products here because it offers such a wide<br />
range of music and conditions. Meyer Sound<br />
has shown a lot of their loudspeakers here, including<br />
the MILO, MICA and M’elodie arrays,<br />
and their MJF-212 monitor, which is named for<br />
the festival. Shure has debuted wireless systems<br />
and microphones here, and of course, Digidesign<br />
brought in the VENUE console when it was<br />
first introduced.<br />
How has the VENUE influenced production?<br />
The VENUE has reduced the amount of outboard<br />
gear we need, which has enabled us to<br />
reduce the overall footprint of the <strong>FOH</strong> areas.<br />
It’s also streamlined the live recording process<br />
and made it easier to link directly with the production<br />
trucks. A lot of visiting engineers really<br />
love it because they<br />
can just bring a USB<br />
drive and dump<br />
their settings, and<br />
even their personal<br />
plug-ins, into the<br />
desk, which saves a<br />
lot of setup time.<br />
You also do full<br />
video production?<br />
Both main halls<br />
are equipped for<br />
five or six camera<br />
HD shoots, with<br />
one main camera, a couple of booms and<br />
two or three on stage. We send live video,<br />
along with direct multichannel feed, to two<br />
dedicated production trucks in the basement<br />
parking area.<br />
We’ve worked with the Voyager trucks for<br />
many years, but this year, one of their trucks<br />
caught fire only two weeks before the start<br />
of the festival, so we had to make some lastminute<br />
decisions. We brought in two expanding<br />
trucks and had acoustical engineers using<br />
Meyer’s SIM 3 system and spreadsheets to design<br />
and create accurate mix rooms. We used<br />
two identical trucks so we could duplicate the<br />
arrangement precisely.<br />
The editing suites are running pretty<br />
much all day. Most of the shows are edited<br />
and archived. Eagle Vision releases them as<br />
part of the Live at Montreux series of DVDs.<br />
You were holding shows at the Casino<br />
again for several years, but you’ve<br />
stopped that this year. Why?<br />
The Casino is where the festival began<br />
and, of course, it’s been made famous by<br />
the song “Smoke on the Water.” It was nice<br />
doing shows there again from a historical<br />
perspective, but it’s about one kilometer<br />
from the Convention Centre, through<br />
some pretty crowded streets, and the logistics<br />
were pretty challenging. Claude<br />
(Nobs) usually introduces the acts on the<br />
main stages, and he had to ride on the<br />
back of the technical director’s motorcycle<br />
to get from one place to the other. It was<br />
a lot of running around for the technical<br />
staff as well.<br />
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