Within the extensive sound production required for this year’s Eurovision2017 in Kyiv, a pair of TiMax SoundHub audio delay matrix units were used to manage multi-zone PA level and delay alignment between Main and B-stage performance areas.
The set-up revisited a technique pioneered for Adele’s recent record-breaking worldwide arena tour, where TiMax SoundHub-S16 systems were inserted between DiGiCo SD7 mixing desks and Lake master system processing feeding the amplifiers, which fed distributed L-Acoustics array hangs, subs and fills.
As the Eurovision performances switched between the two stages, the TiMax dynamic delay-matrix delivered all mix outputs from main and backup console/system processor chains via onboard 96kHz sample-rate converters, to re-align and focus all PA elements onto the current stage.
The power and versatility of TiMax came to the rescue with, what Head of Sound, Kai Reiss, terms an interesting ‘side effect’. He explains, ‘We were asked to provide an emergency announcement for the security office. We recorded it for them [in English and Ukranian] and then gave them a button in their office that allowed them to simply press to pull down the show sound automatically and play the emergency announcement, all from TiMax.’
More often used for spatial audio and vocal localisation in premier theatre, presentation and immersive A/V applications, the dynamic delay-matrix capability unique to TiMax also allows real-time smooth delay-morphing algorithms across multi-zone PA systems as necessary, all recalled as simple Showcontrol Cues presets.
The main TiMax SoundHub unit was provided from Black Box Music’s rental stock with the backup unit supplied by German spatial audio specialist, Panix.
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