Festival Verdi chose Soundscape to bring immersive sound to indoor and outdoor performances.
The 2020 Festival Verdi in Parma, Italy, provided audiences with an immersive sound experience, both indoors and outdoors, thanks to technology provided by d&b. The 2020 festival, which was also its 20th anniversary year, was set to show four operas in both Parma and Busseto.
The festival, like all productions in 2020 was subject to strict restrictions, and because of this kicked off outdoors in the park in front of the historical Ducal Palace, later moving inside into the Teatro Regio theater to finish out the season.
To give audiences an excellent immersive experience and sound quality, despite the change in venue, the sound designers chose to use Soundscape technology.
Soundscape is a comprehensive sound designer toolkit powered by the DS100 Signal Engine, a revolutionary audio system processor based on a powerful Dante enabled signal matrix. Soundscape provides unparalleled creativity through two software modules En-Scene, and En-Space.
The first outdoor setup at Festival Verdi was comprised of two DS100s, one of which was used for the virtual acoustic shell around the orchestra (seven 12SDs), and the choir (four 24Cs and two 16Cs) onstage. The other one was for the main PA, which was composed of four clusters of eight Y8/12, twelve 8S frontfills, two Y10P outfills, and sixteen Y10Ps.
Normally the acoustic properties of an indoor concert hall are essential for acoustic and orchestral music. The musical instruments require balance and reverberance to amplify their performance, ensuring a good experience for the audience as well as for the musicians. Even the acoustics onstage need to fulfill certain criteria regarding level, early and late reverb’ to ensure good audibility for all musicians as a prerequisite for a concert performance. If this is not provided such as in the case of the outdoor venue, a Soundscape system with En-Space can create the desired acoustic environment for the musicians onstage - an ‘acoustic shell’.
When the performances moved indoors due to weather conditions, production chose to keep the virtual acoustic shell in place,which was composed of (main) seven Y10Ps, and (ceiling) nine 8Ss onstage, and six 5Ss in the audience – proving beneficial for both the performers and audience.
