News

30 August 2007
The Gospel according to Trantec

Presented by over 100 amateur and professional actors, ‘The Life of Jesus Christ’ is an annual production staged in the grounds of Dundas Castle near Edinburgh. For its week long run, the five hour play starts with the events surrounding the birth of Christ and continues with scenes of his miracles, parables, Last Supper, Crucifixion, and final Ascension into Heaven.

The production takes full advantage of the grounds and loch at Dundas Castle and involves a walk for the cast and audience of over a mile from start to finish. This presents an extraordinary undertaking for the sound designers, and the Trantec S6000 wireless microphone system was selected for the task.

Along the route 32 receivers were daisy-chained over five control points to ensure that up to 3000 spectators were able to enjoy the proceedings. The UHF system is designed and engineered specifically for professional users, and comprises antenna distribution, headphone monitor, and a small format PC. This internal PC collects data from the receivers and the whole system is monitored and controlled from a single screen, either locally or through any other PC on the network. The crew can then control functions such as transmitter battery status, remote setting of names, frequencies, mute level settings, and frequency scanning.

The small, compact transmitter duplicates the same frequency range as the receiver, storing up to 64 frequencies, eliminating the need for a different transmitter version for each individual channel.

Paul Smith, Managing Director of Dundee based Apex Acoustics was responsible for the sound design for this unusual production and explains, “This has been an interesting challenge for us as we were basically working with a one mile long stage. It was not a time to experiment with untried systems and my experience of Trantec’s S6000 meant I could spec their equipment with total confidence. Fifteen of the transmitters were in use at any one time shared across maybe 50 of the cast throughout the duration of the show. This meant some quick changes between scenes and the compact beltpacks were first-rate – despite the occasional burst of Scottish weather. The production was an ideal opportunity to test the system to the full and I was impressed with its flexible and user-friendly interface. And at the end of the day, it gave us what we were looking for – great sound.”

Smith adds, “To be on the safe side we kept the 16th channel as a spare. This was especially advisable for the ‘Christ walks on the water’ scene. A narrow plank was submersed just below the surface of Dundas Loch, and watching ‘Christ’ feel his way out into loch without drowning both himself and the equipment was unnerving to say the least. Fortunately the crew’s prayers were always answered and we didn’t have to fish the beltpacks from the bottom of the loch.”

For further information contact: Mark Parkhouse at Trantec: 020 8330 3111 mark@trantec.co.uk

For press enquiries contact: Paul Hodsman at ARC: 07771 528488 phodsman@aadm.co.uk

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