The world premiere of The World of Hans Zimmer - An Immersive Symphony The Theatre Experience led the audience at the Metronom Theatre in Oberhausen on an musical journey through the works of this an film composer. Presented by Semmel Concerts and accompanied by lighting, sound and stage technology from Satis & Fy, the show delighted more than 22,000 fans at 15 sold-out concerts from late January to early March.

Zimmer himself spoke to the audience in the form of a larger-than-life, three-dimensional projected image. Behind the scenes, monitor engineer Thorben Ströhlein and RF manager Werner Schmidl also welcomed a special technical guest – Sennheiser’s Spectera – which they used to provide some of the musicians with in-ear and line/mic signals as part of the Spectera Pioneer Program.

Contact with the Pioneer Program was brought about by Holger Schwark, who was the FOH engineer and, together with Colin Pink and Christian Steinhäuser, was also the sound designer for this unique music production curated by Hans Zimmer. This led to Per Witte from Sennheiser bringing a Spectera Base Station and a dozen bidirectional 1.4GHz bodypacks along to the rehearsals, together with a technical introduction into the system provided by Gerhard Spyra, Technical Application

‘You could say, perhaps, that we were thrown in at the deep end because we didn’t have all that much time to prepare,’ Ströhlein says. ‘But actually, it wasn’t a problem at all, because the system was relatively easy to set up.’

One notable feature of this test was that it was Schmidl’s first ever job as RF manager. ‘I’m normally responsible for the FOH system, which is something I did for Peter Maffay for many years. Of course, during my career, I also had to take care of wireless systems now and again. But this is actually my very first major assignment as RF manager. At the venue, I scanned the RF environment using a Spectera antenna and finding the frequencies was no problem at all. It’s all very easy.’

The four DAD antennas were placed directly at the LED curtains that gave the stage an immersive spatiality and drew both the musicians and the audience into fascinating worlds of light and video.

Schmidl and Ströhlein had first considered using Spectera only as an in-ear system. ‘But then we thought: why not make use of the bidirectional feature? After all, that’s one of the greatest advantages you can have,’ Ströhlein says.

Schmidl went on to equip violinist Alexandra Tirsu, bass player Malte Winter, guitarist Julien Castanié and woodwind player Saulius Petreikis with Spectera beltpacks for both in-ear monitoring and line/mic signals. The IEM-only function was used by Ströhlein and by vocalists Carla Chamoun and Futurelove Sibanda, as well as by percussionists Mareike Eidemüller and Benjamin Leuschner, Andreas Kurth on drums, and Christoph Bönecker, the keyboards player, accordionist and Musical Director of the production. Overall, Ströhlein handled a total of 22 monitor mixes.

Schmidl set up the packs using the Spectera WebUI: ‘I was really pleased about this because I was able to use my iPad,’ he says. ‘And not only that, it also eliminates the risk of malfunctions after computer updates.’

The in-ear transmission performance of the bidirectional Spectera beltpacks immediately impressed those who had previously only been accustomed to using analogue in-ear systems.

‘There’s no noise and the sound is incredibly wide on headphones, Ströhlein observes. ‘Everything sounds just as it should.’

Schmidl and Ströhlein were also able to provide the Sennheiser team with feedback to assist the further development of the Spectera ecosystem, for example with regard to the endless rotary volume control, the WebUI and their desire for a cue function.

‘Feedback like this is hugely important for us and enables us to further perfect the system – which works really well via firmware updates,’ Witte says. ‘This is precisely what the Pioneer Program was created for, and we are very grateful to the team for their honest feedback.’

As this was a test run, the Spectera production team had a full back-up system available but never needed it: ‘With analogue systems, I have a lot more dropouts, but Spectera made the production much easier,’ Ströhlein says. ‘Situations like ‘every time I turn my head there’s noise’ just don’t occur anymore. Once the green light is on, I know that everything is functioning properly. You can work much better like that.’

The monitor expert also has something to say about the challenging frequency situation: ‘In the US, it’s more difficult for an RF manager to accommodate a show within the frequency spectrum. I think Spectera will make things much more relaxed. Naturally, you also have to get the artists onboard, because this system works in a different way from the ones they have known up to now. But the system’s footprint is absolutely unbeatable – and, of course, it’s great for the performers, too, as they now only need a single beltpack.’

With The World of Hans Zimmer – An Immersive Symphony, Semmel Concerts will go on from Oberhausen to the stages around the world.