Yamaha Rivage PM7 brings acoustic reliability to the Freiburg Theater

In the last technical renewal, he Freiburg Theater has once again bet on Yamaha and you have installed the Rivage PM7 system, both on its main stage and on the other smaller ones.

Founded in 1866, The Freiburg Theater is the oldest and largest in Breisgau, in Baden-Wurtemberg, southwest of Germany. Moved to its current headquarters in 1910, like many other theaters, has undergone a series of changes and renovations. Recently, The installation of two Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing systems has provided much-needed peace of mind for head of sound Jonas Gottschall and his technical team.

The Freiburg Theater building, where orchestral performances are held, opera, musicals, dance and plays, includes a main stage, a smaller one and a camera one. The room has a long history with Yamaha digital mixers, dating back to the DM2000 and the iconic PM5D. More recently, the store invested in systems from other manufacturers because, as jonas says, who joined the theater three years ago, “At that time there was no Yamaha console that could do exactly what the Friburgo Theater needed. In 2014, the theater had to follow another path, but the system you invested in had problems with the network connection from the control surface to your DSP”.

The problems culminated in every live sound engineer's worst nightmare, when three productions had to be stopped mid-show, in front of the public. “The manufacturer took six months to investigate the problem and I don't think they ever found it.”, Jonas clarifies.

With the Rivage PM series, Yamaha has not only continued its long tradition of reliability, but it has also introduced all the characteristics that the Friburgo Theater needed. So investing in these systems for the main and smaller stages was an obvious solution..

“Reliability is the top priority”, Jonas clarifies. “With any system, If there is ever a problem you also need technical support to be there at the right time. If not, It doesn't make us or the public happy.. According to my experience, Yamaha digital systems have always worked well, there are never software problems, network connection or anything like that, so I was absolutely confident that we would be safe if we invested in Rivage PM”.

The Rivage PM7's theater mode has not only opened it more to the world of theater, But its ease of assembly has meant that Jonas was able to install both systems himself..

The first PM7 system was installed on the smallest stage, which was quite a challenge since they also had a new public address system AND they had little time to install and get them up and running..

“Regarding the characteristics, In my opinion the sound quality is better than before. I also really like dynamic equalizers.. We try to make the amplification of the actors on stage very discreet, but as soon as the voice increases in volume, starts to behave differently with the microphone. So dynamic equalizer is a very useful feature”, Jonas adds..

Like all rooms, in 2020-21 The Freiburg Theater has had to face many difficult challenges, so innovation and adaptability must be at the center of its present and future.

“Normally, is planned for the following year. but now, when we have been able to put on shows, we have had to improvise and face a very short preparation time. In the immediate future we will have to be very flexible and fast, with limited trials. So I'm very glad we invested in secure, stable systems that work exactly as we expected.”.