Marking its 60th anniversary in 2022, the State Kremlin Palace is one of the most prestigious theatre and concert venues in the world. Accommodating almost 6,000, the its Big Hall has recently been equipped with latest generation DiGiCo mixing consoles.
Located inside the Moscow Kremlin, the palace is the geographic and historic centre of Moscow for both social and political gatherings, as well as home to the Kremlin Ballet Theatre. ‘The calibre of productions in the venue meant the reliability of the system was the number one requirement from the State Commission for the Development of the Russian Federation management team,’ says Alexandr Soloukhin, Head Projects at Aris, DiGiCo’s distributor for the Russian market.
‘All equipment installed in the venue simply cannot fail,’ he says. ‘This might be intimidating for some companies, but not for Aris, as good sound is in our DNA and has translated into delivering some of the most demanding sound reinforcement projects to date.’
The project included the installation of a fully redundant system that integrates the new consoles with an existing Stage Tec Nexus routing system. In order to facilitate seamless integration, the manufacturers worked together to allow customised control software, utilising DiGiCo’s extensive OSC implementation to communicate with their respective equipment, meeting the specific requirements for the Kremlin Palace.
‘With the release of custom software by Stage Tec, all the DiGiCo consoles and stage racks were integrated into the Nexus system with control of Stage Tec stageboxes, which ensured an effective workflow across the entire system,’ says Kremlin Senior Sound Engineer, Evgeny Silenko.
DiGiCo Quantum7 and Quantum338 consoles were chosen by the Aris team for the high-profile project. ‘We wanted to use the latest generation of DiGiCo consoles, with the most advanced Quantum engine, to ensure that the system was not only reliable but also future-proof,’ explains Viktor Kizhaikin, Kremlin’s Head of Sound and Video department. ‘We have also added some extras, such as expanding the Quantum7 FOH console with an additional EX-007 fader expansion unit, as well as achieving complete creative freedom for the sound engineer by complementing the onboard processing of the FOH console by Waves plug-ins, which are processed by the SoundGrid Extreme server. Our system is really flexible as there are Optocore, Madi, Dante, AES interfaces to connect third-party devices and systems.’
The Quantum338 console is used as both monitor console and as portable mobile console. Additionally, the team selected top-end DiGiCo SD-Rack stageboxes with 32-bit John Stadius mic preamp cards. Aris engineers performed the installation, commissioned the system and trained the venue’s team on how to use and service the DiGiCo equipment.
‘For nearly six decades, the Big Hall has hosted some of Russia’s largest musical shows and most significant historical and anniversary events, all of which have become part of the vivid and unforgettable pages in the cultural history of Russian Art,’ concludes Aris General Manager, Katerina Pogodina. ‘With the latest integration of DiGiCo Quantum7 and Quantum338 mixing consoles into the venue’s sound eco-system, we have managed to bring the audio quality of this iconic venue up to the most modern and highest world standard. We are truly honoured to have been part of this important project and cannot wait for the ‘main stage of the country’ to be opening its doors to the public again.’
More: www.digico.biz
