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Midas XL8s Double Up On New Italian Musical
Two complete XL8 live performance systems have joined forces on front of house and monitors to provide a new, large-scale Italian musical production with a double dose of sonic quality, reliability and ease of use.
Actor Dei is based on the history of Saint Pio from Pietrelcina, an Italian priest who became famous for his piety as well as alleged supernatural events including the appearance of stigmata. The systems have been provided by Italy’s leading PA rental company Agora which purchased them from local Midas distributor Texim.
Long-time Midas aficionado Claudio Venturelli is sound designer and chief sound engineer for the show. “As soon as I was told about the availability of two complete systems from Agora, I immediately migrated to the new Midas platform,” he explains. “There was only one reason for my choice: I had absolute confidence in its sound quality, and of course the XL8 didn't disappoint me - it sounds simply magnificent. The user interface is unbelievably oriented towards live work; it’s always simple to read, with lightning-fast access to all functions; and can be used perfectly by two operators at the same time. It’s also incredibly powerful as a monitor desk with its 48 buses, dual monitoring functions and fader flip mode.
“The POP and VCA groups are real stress relievers as you can always get what you need at the touch of a single switch, and with nicely readable colour coding. Although the system's Linux-based software is in continuous development, it's very stable and we’ve never had a problem during a show. Midas and Texim helped us with constant precious support during all the setup phase, providing custom configuration files for our ‘strange needs’.”
The large cast of Actor Dei consists of eight main vocalists plus a boy playing the young Pio, 16 chorus members and 16 dancers. Both XL8s share the same input list including 30 wireless receivers located stage right and 32 channels of recorded soundtrack, plus some splits for the understudies. However the two systems are configured entirely differently, with the monitor system handling nine independent stereo in ear mixes for the main singers, six mixes for speakers suspended above the stage, plus some premixes and effects mixes. The FOH system is providing a more simple output set including a main stereo mix plus a number of mixes used for the surround system and some specific inputs from the 5.1 reverbs.
The show’s musical content ranges from an intimate solo to the full company loudly singing a traditional tarantella. “This required very precise programming and a large number of cues which the XL8 handles very well, responding immediately to the rapid series of commands from the sound engineer,” says Venturelli. “The capability to automatically recall a different display and surface setup for every single cue is something that greatly simplifies the workflow during show time: you always have only what you need right in front of you.”
Actor Dei opened in a large custom-made tent theatre in San Giovanni Rotondo, the town where Saint Pio built his famous hospital, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza. From mid July the production embarks on a 14-month tour of Italy, after which it is expected to go global following increasing international interest.
In picture: Giorgio Ellena (assistant engineer), Chiara Lia (radio system operator), Matteo Maserin (monitor engineer), Emanuele Carlucci (FOH engineer) and Claudio Venturelli (chief sound eng and sound designer).
11th July 2007
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