As its name suggests, the Det Nye Teateret (“The New Theatre”) is indeed a new performance venue in Trondheim, Norway that has embraced livestreamed performances with support from PA rental and events company Norsk Produksjon and an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system.
Det Nye Teateret had not yet hosted its first performance when the pandemic changed the landscape, forcing a complete rethink. Rather than choosing to film conventional performances onstage, the theatre has devised a series of dynamic performances through 2020 involving labyrinthine sets and performers ranging throughout the space.
The scope and ambition of these performances the theatre to turn to locally-based Norsk Produksjon for audio and video expertise. Audio engineer and sound designer Ronny Wikmark was tasked with devising a mixing system with the flexibility to manage live and streaming audio for the performances.
Wikmark chose to build the original system around a Allen & Heath dLive C1500 compact mix surface and a CDM48 MixRack, with an IP8 remote controller providing extra hands-on control. Once the system had proven itself, he swapped in a twin-touchscreen dLive C3500 surface, adding a further external monitor to help accommodate higher channel counts and greater complexity for subsequent shows.
“For me as a studio owner and a Pro Tools user, it was very natural and practical to work on dLive,” Wikmark explains. “It has all the tools I need to mix complicated events such as musical theatre, concerts and all other broadcast situations. One of the best features on these mixers is the ability to make custom channel layouts for every scene, and the overall superior scene control. The AMM (Automatic Mic Mixer) D-Classic feature can be a lifesaver for dialog situations too.”
