This is Part 2 of our behind-the-scenes coverage of Cirque du Soleil's Mystère. Read Part 1 here.

In a recent interview with the engineers and technical managers for Mystère, Entertainment Engineering discussed how Cirque du Soleil used a variety of musical cadences to shift the mood of the audience from excitement and fear to calm throughout the show. We’re going to talk about the systems they incorporated but first want to acknowledge that the original sound designer is still with them and will be helping them to upgrade their system in a few years. We’ll get back to you about that upgrade after it’s installed. 

First off, it was interesting to find that Mystère still uses the same speaker cabinets as they did with their day one show. They incorporate all Electro-Voice DeltaMax series units, which is a classic line of professional, high-output loudspeaker systems matched with the electronics controllers. These speakers were introduced in the 1990s and are still going strong. 

The system is a unique dispersed sound system and might be the first immersive system that were available at the time. This allows the show to present full surround sound for the audience, allowing it to sound like things actually fly, like wind swirling throughout the room as the acts are happening. Other sounds coming straight from the band can be sent around the room to provide more of a 3D sound rather than standard left/right stereo. 

As other systems become available on the market, show managers will update the systems. Rather than using the original amplifiers chosen for the show, they recently upgraded to using d&b 30D and 5D amplifiers. The 30D amplifier offers a maximum output power 4x1600 W into 4 ohms and provide five freely assignable GPIOs to the user. It features advanced DSP loudspeaker management and 8-input matrix routing system along with remote browser control. The 5Ds are high-density four channel amplifiers that offer integrated Dante audio networking, flexible power distribution, and advanced DSP (digital signal processing). The shift in amplifier systems provided the show a lot more rack space since it moved from an analog system to digital amps. 

Similarly, to maintain the quality of the show and the magic transferred to the audience, Mystère has upgraded their console package several times. In their most recent shows, they are using DiGiCo SD10 Console Packages. These systems feature up to 144 processing channels, 64 assignable busses, and a 24x24 full processing matrix driven by Stealth Digital Processing and Super FPGA technology. The consoles offer touch sensitive faders, backlit color TFT touchscreens, and snapshot automation for instant, seamless recall of complex system configurations. The show runs both consoles on a redundant engine, so that if a console system’s time clock were to drop out or there’s jitter in the system, it will automatically switch to the backup engine. 

This allows the crew to reboot the full console without having to stop a show. Everything in the show can be operated off of either engine. During the show, they are 100 percent mirrored so that any changes made on the live system is also changed on the redundant one in real time. This occurrence is very rare, but it has happened a few times and saved the crew from having to stop the show. 

Live backups are used for all of their on-stage equipment, including backup tracks available for the live musicians in case something goes wrong. If a microphone is lost, the backup track is easily activated until an equipment swap can be done. All of the character mics are doubles as well, which includes two separate transmitters, two separate microphones, etc. Both mics are always on. The swap is done on the console so that all the same levels are present. 

Backstage Comms

The sound crew also takes care of all of the comms used backstage as well. There are somewhere around 34 belt packs used for wireless interaction on multiple channels backstage. This includes stage managers, multiple offices, and other crew members. The crew uses Clear-Com V-Series panels that feature multi-color displays, low-latency Audio-over-IP, and advanced audio processing for some of the most demanding live-production environments. Every technical department has their own private talk around channel. For example, while rigging is doing the trapeze setup, they can be talking to each other on stage without interfering with the show calls on the main production channel. Plus, anyone who has their own channel can still talk on the production channel as the show requires. That way people aren’t having several different conversations on the same single channel. 

There are a few show scenes where it is dead silent, but most of the quieter scenes the are minimal sounds made by the automation systems. Even during the quieter scenes, relative audience noise often hid any of the automation or backstage conversations. The key is not to draw the audience’s attention to the automation and the surround system mentioned above helps with that by keeping the audience’s minds busy. 

Systems Upgrades

We mentioned systems upgrades briefly but want to cover it more here. When you have a show that’s been running as long as Mystère there are naturally systems changes, but the show can’t stop for several months or more to make those upgrades. So, they are made slowly. For example, the show had a full lighting upgrade a few years ago. The whole thing was completed on-the-fly without losing downtime. Upgrades were completed throughout the year a little at a time, such as cable runs, conduit installation, and support methods. For larger changes, such as acrobatic elements, the crew waited until the show’s scheduled dark weeks for completion.  

For information: 

Cirque du Soleil

Electro-Voice

d&b Audiotechnik

DiGiCo

Clear-Com

This is Part 2 of our behind-the-scenes coverage of Cirque du Soleil's Mystère. Read Part 1 here.

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