Studio 3 control room at the Berlin Philharmonie is where concerts given by the Berliner Philharmoniker in the big hall are recorded, mixed and broadcast live by radio stations. Now, Studio 3 has been upgraded to 96 kHz operation and is now able to complete 5.1 productions with a higher channel and microphone count.
The prerequisite for this was the renewal and expansion of the NEXUS audio network by Berlin-based manufacturer Stage Tec.
In use since 2006, the NEXUS boards have been upgraded and were supplemented with current technologies such as Dante and AES67. Another NEXUS Base Device was added to the network, which now includes six Base Devices and a STAR router. The router is the focal point of the NEXUS audio network.
Broadcasters can connect their recording devices here, directly via MADI. A 56-fader AURUS has been a fixture in Studio 3 for twelve years and is now equipped with seven RMDQ DSP units for resource-intensive 96 kHz operation.
“Modern productions now require 96 kHz as the standard for processing and storing audio signals. We were already able to work with this high resolution but the number of AURUS channels, mix buses and DAW connections reached their limits time and again’, explains Marco Buttgereit, tonmeister at the Berlin Philharmonie.
“We now have a NEXUS system with 80 microphone inputs and a significantly enlarged channel and bus structure, which enables us to undertake very complex orchestral recordings. Upgrading the interfaces to include Dante and Ravenna has given us huge flexibility in connecting peripheral devices.”
A special feature of this project is that the split microphone outputs can be used simultaneously with different sampling frequencies (one with 48 and one with 96 kHz) in two productions in parallel. The current project also includes extensive logic programming.
For example, a Crestron media control was integrated into the AURUS’ environment in cooperation with HeiMedia. The control buttons for this were located on the left-hand side of the AURUS graphics tablet with the buttons for camera remote-control and source selection on the right. The venue’s video sources are fed to two large displays suspended above AURUS.
“If customer relationships continue across several product generations and tenders our concept has proved its merit. When it comes to such prestigious clients as the Berlin Philharmonie, we feel particularly honored,” says Jens Kuhlmann, who planned this project. He is responsible for system planning, support and training at Stage Tec.
In addition to the concerts, Studio 3 will also host Berliner Philharmoniker CD productions and broadcasts to the Digital Concert Hall. Radio stations such as RBB and Deutschlandfunk Kultur also use the control room for their own recordings.
