Russelsheim Theater

Our German key dealer, Freiraum, produced this show in Rüsselsheim Theatre. Stagetracker II was heavily in use, feeding both audio and lighting systems with realtime positions. This by combining Stagetracker II with d&b’s DS100 Soundscape for audio and PSN for GrandMA lighting.

A rope dancer performing acrobatics high in the air was tracked by automated followspots. The dancer was equipped with a Stagetracker II Tag. This enabled the Stagetracker II sensors to track her every movement in realtime. The positions were delivered to a GrandMA 2 lighting console using the PSN data format.

The lighting fixtures were set up in GrandMA 2 using GrandMA’s “Stage Markers”. As long as the fixtures are calibrated to a few known positions on stage – they will also be calibrated to the realtime positions coming from Stagetracker II.

Filters and prediction for perfect lighting

Rope acrobatics involves sudden, fast drops towards the ground. This means that the followspots need to trigger fast, and actually look a bit ahead – using prediction. If not, the delay in the followspot’s motor movement means that the light will constantly be behind the performer.
Lighting fixtures vary much in how fast they move. Stagetracker II has a selection of filters that can be applied, some also include prediction to cope with the different movement speeds / delays of different lighting fixtures.

At the other end, Stagetracker II filters out small movement, to avoid small back and forth movements to the lighting.

The setup included a complete 180 Soundscape sound system. Stagetracker II was used to position a singer and a presenter in the soundscape at all time. Stagetracker II has a dedicated d&b DS100 Soundscape module that has been verified through our partnership. Setup is fast and easy, basically set the DS100’s IP address and select 1 of 4 layers.

Three RadioEye sensors were installed in the trussing above the stage, and all the performers were equipped with Stagetracker II Tags.