PM5D-RH, DM2000V2 and DME64N ensure top quality audio for the great showman's return to TV
Rome - Through the years, Renzo Arbore, affable musician, bandleader and showman, has created a long series of Italian radio and TV shows that offered listeners and viewers some of Italian broadcast’s most original transmissions. With a series of weekly shows entitled “Speciale per me” (Specially for me), Arbore recently made a welcome return to state broadcaster RAI’s TV programs, with his unmistakable fusion of swing and Neapolitan rhythms, from a studio mid-way between a small sixties jazz club and a get-together with some old friends.
“Meno siamo meglio stiamo" (The fewer we are the more we enjoy ourselves) was the provocative sub-title of the show, which was aired around midnight every Saturday, but with the aid of some his long-time friends and numerous important guests who alternated on the studio’s stage, including Roberto Benigni (launched by Arbore in one of his previous shows) and Stefano Bollani, one of Italian and European jazz’s greatest pianists, the result was yet another success for this “maestro” of television.
Even if the feel in the studio was in typical Arbore style – a friendly, almost homely atmosphere, with constant interaction with the studio audience – backstage there was a team of professionals able to ensure the show's host and his guests top grade technical support, starting with the Yamaha equipment supplied by rental firm Audio Uno and entrusted to some of the sector’s most respected technicians and engineers.
No less than three positions (sound designer, with the responsibility of the entire audio system, stage manager and playout sound engineer) were held by Tony Soddu, who had already worked with Arbore and one of the show’s authors (Gegè Telesforo) in the past. Soddu explained, “As always, the shows seem really casual - almost improvised - to viewers, but Arbore and Telesforo know exactly what they want and are well aware that, if not organized well in advance, audio can cause big problems for a show that’s almost all music-based, so they gave me the data for designing the system two months before work began on the production.”
Soddu suggested Maurizio Mura (owner of Roman rental firm Audio Uno) two engineers he considered ideal for the show: Marco Della Torre as monitor engineer and Roberto Del Duca for mixing the mics used for speech in the studio's PA system.
Della Torre was not at his first outing with a PM5D console (the version used for Arbore's show was an “RH”, with 48 XLR analogue mono inputs with recallable mic preamps, identical to the head amplifier design of the Yamaha PM5000, with 4 stereo inputs that will accept mic level signal), and explained, “I’d already done a few one-off live events, but hadn't really has the time to make the most of its memories, routing facilities, etc. With Arbore on the other hand, I was finally able to really put the desk’s features to the test. There were fifteen monitors on stage and three In Ear Monitor systems ready for guest who required them.”
Even the “resident” set-up was rather complicated, with the largest number of musicians and vocals – a total of ten mics as well as Arbore’s – but when guests groups or solo artists arrived, the stage could be completely “revolutionized”.
The stage at the Saxa Rubra studio hosting the show therefore had five or six monitors that were positioned according to the musicians’ and singers’ requirements.
Della Torre added, “The console is definitely under greater pressure at live events, but it was also extremely useful with the limited broadcast times on “Speciale per me” – if they told us we’d five minutes for a changeover on stage, the deadline had to be respected!”
During rehearsals, Della Torre used the console’s Preview function, which enabled him to prepare the next situation while the previous artist was performing, but the feature he appreciated most of all was its flexibility. “With the PM5D, when a mic was added at the last minute, a line had to be split on to two different mics, or a mic switched from one send to another, I just set the required configuration, then, at the right moment, with a simple recall, everything was ready instantly - equalization, dynamics and effects – this is an enormous advantage!”
Soddu explained that particular care had to be taken with speech sound reinforcement, “The speaker enclosures were all round the show’s circular set, and ‘aimed’ at the mics – a very unnatural situation, but that was what the producers wanted.”
To avoid feedback risks, it was therefore necessary to create a “multipoint” system, using a DME64N, to ensure very precise control of the speaker systems connected to the Yamaha DM2000V2 console helmed by Roberto Del Duca.
Although he had already used a DM2000V2 on numerous occasions in the past (with other top Italian artists and for various other events), so had therefore been able to appreciate its performance, with its 96kHz effects, integrated machine control, computer and memory-card based data management and extraordinarily flexible bus system with digital patching, inserts, and much more, this was the first time Del Duca had used the console with this configuration.
He explained, ”I used the desk’s first 24 channels, with twelve lavalliers, eight hand-held mics, the audio tracks for the vintage film footage from RAI’s archives and a few service channels. By means of the DM200V2’s MY16-AE (AES/EBU) card, the signals were fed out from the console directly into the DME64N. With just one conversion, we had more gain and less feedback risks than if we’d used an analogue console, which would have required two conversions. The twelve Aux sends on the DM2000V2 were thus connected to the DME, which in turn routed the mix-down to all the speakers in the studio and, in this way, I could raise or lower the volume or equalize each enclosure or group of enclosures exactly as required by the show’s sound design, and there were 32 enclosures in all!”
Since the studio was circular and the people speaking could be anywhere, the possibility of adjusting the volume of each loudspeaker enclosure was of fundamental importance, and the audio team was thus able to optimize the set-up, ensuring excellent intelligibility.
Del Duca concluded, “Thanks to this really efficient solution, I managed to keep the lavalliers at a volume that would have been inconceivable with another system.”
