The new staging of Richard Wagner’s masterpiece “Tristan und Isolde”, which celebrated its premiere at the Bayreuth Festival on 25 July 2024 under the musical direction of Semyon Bychkov, also set new acoustic standards.
For the first time, a work of classical music was mixed in Dolby Atmos in the Remote Audio Control Room (RACR) of German technical service provider VIDI (pictured).
During the performance at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the opera was given its final acoustic polish by sound engineers Peter Hecker in Bayreuth and Harald Gericke at the audio mixing console in the VIDI RACR in Darmstadt. The signal was processed for Deutsche Grammophon’s streaming platform STAGE+ in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4.
The collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH, TV Skyline and Tonzauber.com made the musical experience possible.
“The VIDI RACR has been established in sports productions for many years and offers fans in front of the screens an acoustic experience as if they were live in the stadium during live broadcasts, such as Bundesliga matches for Sky Deutschland,” said VIDI Managing Director Jürgen Jahn in Darmstadt. “We are delighted that we were able to demonstrate the performance of the system for the first time during a live broadcast in the classical music sector.”
“The perfectly tuned acoustics in the RACR allow the sound engineer to work much more precisely than with an audio mixing station in an OB van,” explained Jahn. “In addition, remote production requires significantly less technical effort at the venue, less space, less material transport and fewer staff. The solution is therefore also more sustainable.”
The VIDI RACR concept was designed and realised by Felix Krückels, Professor for Broadcast Production and System Design at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. He also contributed his expertise to the audio production of “Tristan und Isolde”.