26 SPONSORED CONTENT Riedel
Riedel and RNN deliver a future-proof remote mastering service for a livestreamed concert
he coronavirus pandemic has forced a lot of live event broadcasters to reflect on how their organisations were run pre- lockdown; did we really need big recording trucks and a production crew on-site? Collaboration tools and broadcast technologies have advanced rapidly over the last five years, making it possible to record, mix and output a live event from a remote location. Peter Brandt, founder of Remote Music Productions, a subsidiary of Remote Recording Network (RRN), says: “About a decade ago, we switched from using recording trucks to London cabs, because it was better for our clients and our carbon footprint, but we found that those were not suitable for mixing in. About five years ago, we developed a concept to remote control the recording and mix it from our studio.” He adds: “Through a collaboration with Riedel Communications and its technology, which enables two locations to connect through a method of communication and audio transmission, we were able to make this idea a reality.” PLUG IN AND PLAY On Easter Monday this year, Riedel Communications and RRN were able to demonstrate their remote mastering service via a livestreamed concert by Peter Maffay and local musicians from Steintor- Varieté in Halle, Germany. The concert was mixed on-site by Werner Schmidl
and, using RRN’s Remote Mixing Facility, mastered remotely by Peter Brandt from Studio Boecker in Cologne. Studio Boecker and the Steintor- Varieté theatre were connected through Riedel’s Remote Operations Centre (ROC) in Wuppertal, where ROC engineers monitored communications, remotely configured all signals and transmitted all audio streams between the two locations. The solution was characterised by a small box, with connecting XLR cables for the audio feed. Inside the box were four streams of data; Riedel communication, audio, video and control data – but these can be customised depending on the size and complexity of the event. “It’s a simple plug-in-and-play solution,” explains Brandt. “For this concert, we only used six channels – FOH stereo and four ambience mics – and recorded it at 48kHz 24-bit audio. It was easily the smallest system that we had put together, but that just goes to show how scaleable our remote mixing/mastering systems are.” Carsten Voßkühler, project manager at Riedel Communications, adds: “Our goal was a system that can be linked easily to our ROC via a WAN; we wanted Peter and his team to be able to concentrate fully on their task, without worrying about the communications and set-up.” THOUGHTFUL TECH Although this solution for remote mastering has been five years in the making, it has
WE WANTED THEM TO BE ABLE TO CONCENTRATE FULLY ON THEIR TASK, WITHOUTWORRYING ABOUT THE SET-UP
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