Luxembourg Philharmonic doubles investment in Yamaha Rivage PM

The Rivage PM digital mixing system Yamaha it is again the choice of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, which already had a PM10 and to which it now adds a PM7.

With a sloping stalls and four towers’ of seats on each side, the great auditorium of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, with capacity for 1.328 personas, combines the acoustics of classic 'shoebox' concert halls’ with the atmosphere of a theater Shakespearean.

The so-called music room (chamber music room), a smaller space with curved walls, can accommodate 313 personas, while the four halls of the venue are also used for performances.

This space has had digital mixing systems of Yamaha since it was inaugurated, in the year 2005, in which the models were initially installed PM5D y M7CL-32 y, later, a Cl5 and the Shore PM10.

The sound quality of the Rivage PM10 system was so impressive that, just a year ago, Those responsible made the decision to replace the CL5 with a system Shore PM7.

“The audio quality of the Rivage PM10 system is excellent - explains Thomas Leisen, Freelance mixing engineer who works regularly with the Luxembourg Philharmonic's internal team-. We have been working with it since the first version of the firmware and performance has improved with each update. Even complex configurations are now easy to create”.

The possibility of separating the different positions “and working with two operators on the console is a nice feature and, with the editor offline, New operators can get an overview of system functions and easily prepare configurations - he adds -. The system has fully met expectations and has also been well accepted by the invited engineers”.

This last aspect is also confirmed by Marko Schneider, engineer who regularly mixes shows at this facility: “the system is very popular among visiting engineers. Many have worked here for the first time with a Rivage PM system and their first action is always to take a photo with it”.

The success of the PM10 system caused the venue's audio team to start looking for a complementary system, that would be equally suitable for mixing monitors in the Grand Auditorium and as a flexible solution for sophisticated applications in the Music Room and lobby performance spaces.

“When we invest in Rivage PM7, We also changed our Rio3224-D I/O racks for the new D2 versions. Thus, we had two high-end systems 64 entries: the PM10 with the RPio622 I/O rack, and the PM7 with the R D2 series racks. When they combine, both systems can manage FoH and monitors for our larger productions in the Grand Auditorium”, points out Hagen Tschek, director of stage operations at the Luxembourg Philharmonic.

The new system was supplied by the Belgian firm Amptec y, although the pandemic has limited its use until now, the technical team immediately noticed the difference.

“The combination of Rivage PM7 and D2 I/O racks was a huge improvement in sound, thanks to these head amps – subraya Schneider-. Everything sounds clearer and, when using it for monitoring, gain sharing with PM10 system works perfectly. All of the Luxembourg Philharmonic's mixing systems now have sound quality worthy of its status as a world-renowned venue.”.