Spectrum efficiency, Dante™ digital audio networking, and rechargeability were key for this year’s Schlossfestspiele in Schwerin  

NILES, Ill., July 30, 2013 — From June 14 – July 21, the old garden in Schwerin, in front of the impressively illuminated castle, transformed itself into an open air theater, staging the operetta “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss and seating 1,761 people. Sixty-eight channels of Shure ULX-D™ Digital Wireless Systems were in use, providing superior reliability and extended RF performance.

As in past years, the Dresden branch of German PA rental company Neumann & Mülller was responsible for the technical execution of the Schlossfestspiele. After using Shure UHF-R® wireless systems for several years, they opted for the ULX-D digital solution, offering features such as bodypack frequency diversity, Dante™ digital audio networking, and rechargeability for a flawless performance.

The audio signals of the 11 soloists fitted with two custom-made headsets were each preselected in a dedicated radio room and then forwarded to the FOH area. Using Yamaha’s CL1 and CL5 consoles, Erwin Liebscher and Martin Wurmnest, sound engineers at Neumann & Müller, appreciated the ease of setup enabled by the Dante functionality as well as the built-in redundancy.

“Due to ULX-D’s Dante ability, the setup and patching is very smooth. Plus, you don’t have this cable mess that you used to have,” says Erwin Liebscher.

ULX-D offers advanced and efficient rechargeability, providing the transmitters with up to 12 hours of performance time that would suffice for two shows. Transmitters and receivers display remaining battery life in hours and minutes, accurate to within 15 minutes.

All these parameters can be controlled by Wireless Workbench® Software (WWB6), which runs on several PCs on-site. Further WWB6 features include comprehensive frequency coordination, live performance monitoring, and advanced RF spectrum plotting.  

“The audio quality and the RF performance of ULX-D are quite respectable. We have now been using ULX-D for six weeks and have had no range or RF issues,” adds Martin Wurmnest.