BH audio amplifies the Puccini Festival with Lawo and db Soundscape

Torre del Lago Puccini is an Italian town that every year hosts the Puccini Festival. In this place, almost a century ago, the composer composed his operas. The first time one of his operas was performed here was in 1930. Since then, the Gran Teatro all’Aperto Giacomo Puccini has regularly hosted his compositions.

The pandemic made social life difficult. This fact caused social distancing to affect all public events and this festival was no exception. Traditionally performed without amplification, distancing requirements meant that the orchestra strength had to be reduced. This, in turn, meant that the remaining musicians were unable to sonically fill the auditorium, so, for the first time, sound reinforcement was contemplated.

The Festival’s Artistic Director, Maestro Giorgio Battistelli, turned to BH audio, an Italian audio company. Massimo Carli, Chief Sound Engineer of BH audio, designed a solution for the Festival. He counted with a Lawo mc²36 console and d&b Soundscape technology.

The open-air stage and auditorium in Torre del Lago do not accommodate suspended loudspeakers, so Carli used 98 speakers on 62 Soundscape outputs closely positioned behind the audience. “This loudspeaker arrangement, combined with our Lawo mc²36 console and the d&b DS100 processors, delivers a pleasing natural sound experience for the entire audience, no matter where they are seated,” says Carli.

“The mc²36 MKII console with its A__UHD Core technology gives me access to 256 processing channels, available at both 48 and 96 kHz, and can manage an I/O capacity of 864 channels,” Carli concludes.