Wavetool shows added value Musical Awards: The Kick-off 2023 in the Netherlands

During the Musical Awards: The Kick-off 2023, the technical team relied on Wavetool – a professional audio and RF monitoring and listening software for audio engineers - to secure flawless monitoring and efficient signal control. 

During this event, produced by the Dutch Medialane (an independent Dutch company that works on behalf of and in collaboration with commercial and public media broadcasters, theatres, venues, licensees, and brands), Jeroen Straus, an active freelancer working with several companies and that has increasingly taken on the role of RF coordinator during the last COVID-19 years, shares his experience of using Wavetool: “Wireless is becoming more and more extensive. Especially when the number of transmitters exceeds 100, technicians quickly find that complex and challenging.”

Customer Profile

During the festive live awards show, current and new musical productions that can be seen in the 2023-2024 season in the theatres, are presented and broadcast on the Dutch channel NPO 1, live from the Royal Theater Carre in Amsterdam. Performances from Aida, Les Miserables, De Hospita, Grease, De Tocht and Mamma Mia! are showcased. These musical productions were provided with a total of 70 channels of Axient Digital, and 12 channels of PSM1000, and worked seamlessly together with the AD600 Spectrum manager and Wavetool software.

People now become more and more convinced and can see the added value of the software. Bo Bruijs van de Compaenen, responsible for the sound design of the award show, who works at Medialane, also said; “Partly due to this system, we were able to achieve a show with 70 transmitters and more than 120 headsets and many substitutions with a technical 0 error score.”

When Jeroen recently did the RF coordination at the Streamers*, he even missed the software “I didn't have Wavetool with me and then I thought; maybe it would have been useful after all. Because then you suddenly have to dive into the transmitter racks again and use headphones to detect crackles or noise, while there is an easier solution for this. With those types of concerts, where you have to deal with instruments in addition to singing, Wavetool makes it much easier to listen in when people hear a noise. In addition, the colleague who released the channels at the time could only distribute and not listen in, so if something was wrong, he didn't really know what it was about. These are the things for which the software is useful.”

*(Dutch occasional formation that was founded during the covid pandemic to give free online livestream concerts during the lockdowns, now there operate with an audience again)

Solution

Jeroen adds: “A total of 4 people were busy releasing/issuing and placing the transmitters on the musical artists and band members. We noticed that Wavetool worked great for this. For example, we had a touchscreen and a Mini Mac where we could check all channels, even when in doubt whether something was wrong. Before everyone left the transmitter table, they had to walk past it and they could check immediately if the lavalier was in the right position, and if the pack was working properly, so you at least know that when they walk away from the transmitter table, it works, and we also indicated in the system who had been checked. You will also immediately receive a notification if there are strange crackles or if you hear something else strange and you can immediately listen to that channel, which saves a lot of hassle. We managed to filter out a few issues using Wavetool. When you hear people talking and still brushed against something, or if the lavalier was not placed quite correctly.”

Not everyone from the technical team knew Wavetool beforehand, but they were able to get started with it quickly: “Several people already knew the software from the Scheveningen theatre because it is in the house setthere, but it is so simple that everyone who was not familiar with it, was still able to manage to use it easily. You press the channel on the screen, and you can listen to the channel. So even for users who are not used to working with it, it is very simple and a must-have at larger concerts with a lot of wireless, or theatres with large, fixed installations.”

Advantages

The use of his own AD600 spectrum manager also makes his work alongside Wavetool easier; “In addition to Wavetool, I also used the AD600 spectrum Manager. This is also much faster, more precise, more pleasant, more functions and it has so many more advantages compared to the older AXT600. A quick and effective workflow is a benefit that is indispensable for my work in RF that I actually can't live without.”