How VENUE | S6L Powers Opera Performances at Biwako Hall

Biwako Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga, is a destination for performers and concertgoers alike. It was one of the venues in Japan to install FLUX:: SPAT Revolution Wave Field Synthesis, an immersive audio system that fine-tunes the sound coverage in the hall with cutting-edge spatial technology, which they use for performances from a wide range of local and foreign artists, spanning music, ballet, musicals, classical orchestras, and opera.

The hall is located on the south shore the beautiful Lake Biwa, just 20 minutes from the city of Kyoto. It has three halls, each fitted with an Avid VENUE | S6L, as well as FLUX:: SPAT Revolution Ultimate in the main hall and Yamaha AFC Image and AFC Enhance powering immersive audio in the middle hall.

We spoke with Mr. Masahito Oshitani of the Biwako Hall Stage engineering department, Mr. Shunya Kono of Yamaha Sound System, and Mr. Mack Miyamura of REWIRE INC. to learn about the hall’s sound design and how opera is mixed with Avid VENUE.

The Biwako Hall was designed and built specifically to house opera performances, Mr. Oshitani explains. “The walls of the large hall are made of cherry wood, and the floors are made of oak wood, which is a dense wood that increases the reflectivity of sound. How can we successfully add electro acoustics to the natural sound of architectural acoustics? This is quite a technical process."

In addition to opera, the venue is home to its own vocal ensemble, which receives equal attention and dedication from the technical team as the visiting performers.

Mr. Oshitani says, “In addition to regular performances, we often do recordings at the small hall. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biwako Hall Vocal Ensemble performed elementary school songs, which we then recorded and put on CDs and distributed to each school. Using Pro Tools with VENUE | S6L is useful because it allows multi-track recording during performances, which we can keep as archives.”

Much like the design and acoustics of the hall itself, the equipment is carefully chosen and installed as well, as Mr. Oshitani explains. “I have a strong desire to introduce equipment that sounds good, even if it is expensive. The sound has a solid base tone of about 200Hz, the edges are rounded without standing too up, and there is an extension of the high frequency range and a gloss. If you use a hard-sounding table for opera acoustics, the feeling of electric sound will be emphasized, so VENUE | S6L goes well with opera." He also says “VENUE | S6L is like a Steinway, in piano terms.”

Mr. Miyamura of REWIRE INC. feels similarly, adding the value he places on a transparent sound, which should never be “colored by the manufacturer” of the console. Sound should only be colored by the operator of the console.

One of the key factors in adopting VENUE | S6L for the facility is being able to use AAX DSP plugins natively at 96khz. Mr. Oshitani says, “In opera, live sound is important, so we do not want people to think that the sound engineer is creating the sound. We're fighting to figure out how to produce good sound at low volume, so it's important to have a high resolution even for small sounds."

Another key factor are the functions built into the console for problems, like an engine failure. Mr. Kono says, “VENUE | S6L simply connects the control surface to the engine and matches the firmware version. You can respond quickly in the event of a problem such as an engine failure. It's also nice to be able to swap out the control surfaces for each module."

Mixing Immersive Audio with SPAT

One of most the exciting features of Biwako Hall is its immersive audio capabilities. The main hall is equipped with FLUX:: SPAT Revolution Ultimate, enabling precise spatial positioning of sound sources to create an elevated, 3D experience for every seat in the house. But despite its capabilities, exciting, cutting-edge sound design isn’t always what attendees are interested in when they go to the opera.

Mr. Oshitani says, “In the case of classical music such as opera, it is ideal for the sound on the stage to be heard naturally as it is, and we want it to be heard the same no matter where you are in the audience, so we decided to introduce SPAT, which incorporates wavefront synthesis, which is the latest technology today. The tuning is done by Hugo Larin of FLUX::. The finish is very good. I could hear the voices of the performers on the stage as clearly as if they were next to me in the audience, which increased my sense of immersion in the work."

Mr. Miyamura adds, “If you line up five arrays at the front and produce a sound that correctly reflects the time axis and phase characteristics according to the order and distance of the singers on stage, it will be added to sound and will naturally reach the audience's ears. With the VENUE | S6L, SPAT can be used as a plugin, and it can also be operated from the S6L."

Introducing SPAT to the hall was not in the original plan, Mr. Oshitani says. But after learning about it in a presentation, he quickly wanted to install it. It soon became the first time that the Yamaha Active Field Control (AFC) Immersive Audio System was installed in a permanent facility.

“This industry has a dream,” Mr. Oshitani shares, “and new technologies are being created every day, and the performance that can be provided is also being updated. How to make works that can only be done in this era will continue for the next 100 or 200 years. I think our main concept is how to improve what we can achieve now.”

Avid VENUE | S6L Introduces New Engine & Software

The new VENUE | E6LX-256 engine has the largest number of channels ever added to the VENUE lineup, with 256 ins, 192 outs, and 64x64 matrices. It also has an improved hardware design for stability and maintainability, making it more equipped to handle large events that require complex setups.

The Improved Workflow of VENUE 8.0

The maximum number of tracks for virtual soundcheck has been doubled to 256. A new option has also been added, AVB-HD mode, which, when enabled on the MLN-192 card, allows AVB recording up to 216x216 channels at 96kHz via a single Ethernet cable. In addition, the functions of the event system have been expanded, including the ability to set up and output multiple monitor mixes, as well as the Automix function, which has been requested since the launch of VENUE. The workflow has also been improved from the previous version.