Purists may snarl, but the facts are clear: Major opera companies throughout the world now use wireless microphone systems for broadcast purposes and to help in-house audience members hear more clearly. Improvements in audio quality have lessened the resistance from singers, directors and sound engineers.
The ancient castle in Schwerin, Germany, was turned into an open air theater recently. Johann Strauss’ "Die Fledermaus" was performed for an audience of nearly 1800 people. To make sure that the master’s music reached them all, the German PA company Neumann & Mülller fitted the 11 soloists with Shure ULX-D wireless mics. Sound engineers Erwin Liebscher and Martin Wurmenst appreciated the ease of use of this system, which incorporates Audinate’s Dante digitial media transport system. “
Due to ULX-D’s Dante ability, the setup and patching is very smooth. Plus, you don’t have this cable mess that you used to have,” says Erwin Liebscher.
Audio from the wireless microphones was sent to a room outfitted with Yamaha CL1 and CL consoles and then ported back to a mixer in the FOH area. The ULX-D battery life of 12 hours allowed the system to handle two shows each day without a need to recharge or move to a backup set of microphones. No interference issues were reported.
“The audio quality and the RF performance of ULX-D are quite respectable. We have now been using ULX-D for six weeks and have had no range or RF issues,” adds Martin Wurmnest.
