First TiMax Tracker and TiMax2 SoundHub Purchase by Germany's Neumann & Mueller The German audio production supplier Neumann & Mueller (N&M) has augmented its rental inventory with a TiMax2 SoundHub audio show control matrix and TiMax Tracker performer tracking system from Out Board. The purchase followed a 12-month period of extensive evaluation that culminated in an outdoor staging of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) at Erfurt's Domstufen Festspiele event. Erfurt is a medieval cultural center, steeped in history. The cathedral forms a focus, particularly across the three weeks of every summer when it provides the backdrop to the Domstufen Festspiele -- an open-air theatrical extravaganza which takes the vast medieval cathedral steps as its performance platform. This year's production -- by Guy Montavon -- of Mozart's final opera transformed the imposing cathedral steps into the lush green of a magical garden. With N&M's local point-man Steffen Schlupp coordinating logistics, the sound design was created by N&M's amplified-opera specialist Omar Samhoun, who also handled the main mix and soloists, with Helge Petzold mixing orchestra and Alexander Nickol balancing the chorus vocals. TiMax sound design and programming support onsite was provided by Out Board's Robin Whittaker with Matthias Ziegenberg, of TiMax distributor Pro Audio-Technik. The TiMax SoundHub delay-matrix fed an assortment of d&b audiotechnik line array and trapezoidal cabinets, with main left and right hangs and outfills comprised of a selection of Q1, Q7, and Q10 boxes. Across the front of the stage three Q7s were concealed in beehive scenic elements, providing the dual role of front-fills and first-wavefront reference anchor speakers. More Q7 first-wavefront speakers were hidden in graphics panels about 49.2' upstage, and one further anchor was located about 131.2' deep upstage, comprised of a small d&b T10 compact line-array system concealed inside a weather-station prop. A row of d&b E0 nearfill delays were mounted on the handrail half way up the audience seating. Six TiMax Tracker TT Sensors were located around the periphery of the stage mapping the huge performance area in three-dimensions to an accuracy of 5.9". Eleven soloists and chorus principals wore miniature TT Tags emitting a 6-8GHz radar-frequency signal which enabled the TT sensors to follow them around stage in real-time. This data was sent via a MIDI data stream to the TiMax SoundHub delay-matrix which applied continuously varying level and delay parameters to every radio mic thereby maintaining seamless audio localization simultaneously for each performer as they moved around the stage. The three layers of first-wavefront reference speakers on stage were key to the success of this source-oriented reinforcement approach, due to the extremely deep scale of the stage and consequent inverse square law attenuation. To ensure audience members would localize to the performers' acoustic vocals originating from far mid- and upstage areas, the first-wavefront reinforcement served to boost their original time-zero acoustic sources so that secondary arrivals from subsequent main and nearfield delay speakers were kept within the 6-8dB window that would allow them to perform their vital Haas-effect audio localization task. On a flying visit to check out the show Neumann & Mueller's owner and founder Herr Jürgen Neumann declared himself to be highly impressed at how realistic sounding it was. As sound designer colleague Samhoun observed, "It was not just good it was really very good." 
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