Image: Nevill Holt Opera

Nevill Holt Opera has announced the use of a virtual acoustic shell for staging this season’s outdoor performances.

It is the first opera company in the United Kingdom to use leading audio technology provider d&b audiotechnik’s Soundscape technology. The system creates a virtual shell to produce an audio experience traditional loudspeaker set-ups cannot.

The secret lies in Soundscape’s capability to send the sound emanating from the singers’ mouths to the audiences’ ears in an immersive experience that simulates the acoustics found in some of the world’s top houses and venues. Through the use of software called En-Space, d&b’s Soundscape “recreates acoustic signatures of prestigious classical music venues around the world without the need of any cumbersome structures or chambers on stage to achieve this. The virtual shell gives the performers the feeling of residing indoors, benefitting from the same sound qualities an opera house would generate,” stated Adam Hockley in Nevill Holt’s press release. Hockley works in Technical Support at d&b.

Sound Designer Mark Rogers, who introduced Soundscape to Nevill Holt, added that “rather than a disembodied voice seeming to emerge from a loudspeaker that is nowhere near the singer, diverting the audience’s attention away from the action and onto the technology, Soundscape locates each singer’s voice as coming from the right place.”

While the use of d&b’s Soundscape is a first for outdoor performances in the UK, the technology is not new to the opera world. It has been in use at the Ravenna Festival since 2016.