Page 63 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

The Gold Medal

To adhere to social distancing requirements, The Gold Medal performances were
constructed across four separate rooms. The largest space was populated by those
on string instruments and the piano, with each participant located two meters apart.
Woodwind and brass instruments were split up each into their own rooms, with three
meters of space allocated between performers. Finally, the conductor was located in
a fourth room. The challenge of this setup, of course, was collaboration between the
multiple rooms.

“We had 90 musicians in total across the different rooms and building,” Hepple said.
“We needed to manage a number of inputs and outputs across the space and have
them be as latency free as possible. They needed to be able to perform
synchronously with one another.”

To do this, 40 Neumann, Rupert Neve Designs, Schoeps, and DBA directional
microphones were strategically placed across the space to capture instrument audio.
These feeds are brought into SSL, Yamaha and Neutrik preamplifiers where they’re
translated into Dante-native channels. These Dante feeds then head to Cisco and
Dell switch infrastructure across two buildings, and then routed to a Solid State Logic
System T mixer that allows for broadcast specific processing. The audio feeds are
then delivered out to two locations: to the broadcast mix for live playout via a live
production system, and to the other performers via headphones.

“With Dante we were able to deliver the correct mix to the different rooms with an
imperceptible level of latency,” Hepple said. “Our conductor went into rehearsals on
day one, and within 20 bars he said he was ready to go. This is someone who has
decades of experience in the classical performance space, and it was an immediate
acceptance of the new setup.”

Despite the unique visual – the setup across four different rooms – the production is
a seamless performance.

“There was a time when we were worried this could be cancelled,” Hepple said.
“However, with Dante we were able to keep it alive. And that’s a big deal right now
because our rooms, which are normally alive and vibrant, had been silent for six
months. Bringing the music back was important for everyone.”

The setup will next be used to present an upcoming Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
concert conducted by Jessica Cottis, which will be available to watch online for one
week from Saturday, Nov. 7 at www.gsmd.ac.uk/gso.