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Eclipse Takes Centre Stage in German Theatre
Opened in 1904, the Bielefeld Theater in Bielefeld in north-west Germany is one of the largest theatres in the region. Home to the Bielefeld Opera, the venue boasts two auditoria which host everything from musical drama, plays, ballet, modern dance, and of course opera, all of which has earned it a reputation that extends far beyond its native Westphalia.
The Bielefeld technical team, headed by sound designer Thomas Noack, is very familiar with Innovason, as the main theatre is already equipped with an Sy80 and an Sy48 which are used in tandem for the large musical productions which grace the main stage at Bielefeld. Noack recalled with a grin how he first came across Innovason: "At the time, we were working from a control room that was way below the level of the stage - the Sy80 was the only console we could find at the time that didn't have a massive meter bridge which would have impeded our view of the stage! So we took it - they hadn't even written the user manual yet! We haven't looked back since." However, when the time came to replace the console running the smaller TAM stage, Noack was at pains to point out that the Eclipse had to earn its place, it was far from being a given.
"We looked at several consoles before we decided on the Eclipse," he noted. "The console is here on its own merit because it was best suited to the way in which we like to work." Expanding on that thesis, Noack continued: "We really appreciate certain features of Eclipse that other consoles simply don't offer - for example, the SmartPanel concept gives us instant access to pretty much anything we like - in our case to things like effects or auxes. It also allows you to control your entire mix on a minimum number of faders. The fact that we can have gain on every channel is also extremely useful for us. Obviously we repeat the same show many times, and most of our adjustments as we go from one show to the next are gain corrections, sometimes during the show itself, so the individual gain feature is very important for us."
Sound engineer Michael Stellbrink agrees. "The philosophy of the system is marvellous - as it is with all Innovason consoles. It's the ideal tool for theatre use. Eclipse does absolutely everything we need it to do, and more - in fact, it's performance is even better than we imagined it would be. We're very proud to be part of the Innovason family. All I need now is for Herve to design me an Sy80 with a MARS recording system and a SmartPanel!"
"Eclipse is an extension of everything we love about Sy48 and Sy80, and most of that is to do with the flexibility of the console," concluded Noack. "I can imagine that it's important for most markets, but in theatre it is paramount. For me, this flexibility as well as their ease of operation is really what makes Innovason stand out from the crowd. We were keen to try out other consoles, as we have had our Innovasons for many years now and we thought that maybe the other manufacturers would have brought out some interesting products in the meantime. It's true, they have, but for my money there is nothing that can rival Eclipse, or indeed the service we have received from INNOVASON over the years. It's an unbeatable package!"
8th December 2009
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