Array of Microphones Deliver Total Transparency and Unrivaled Natural Sound for Virtual Performances Featuring School's Students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni.
DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the United States, recently presented its 14th annual Christmas at DePaul holiday celebration as a virtual event. Long before the semester began, the school's administration knew it would need to make some big changes if the Christmas show was to safely go on during these unprecedented times. With some ingenuity and an assist from DPA Microphones, the school found a way to host the event virtually.
Leading into the school year, DePaul University's Director of Operations & Events, Melissa Grady, knew it was going to be hard to gauge what would be possible in a COVID world. We had to make the call very early that we were not going to have an in-person event this year, she says. The show's artistic director, Tony Peluso, and production manager, Jamie Davis, both alumni of DePaul, worked closely with the university to create a plan that would allow us to pre-record our show. While the show looks different than it has in the past, we were still able to use the exceptional talents of our students, faculty, staff and alumni while following COVID protocols to make Christmas at DePaul a reality this year. Dan Steinman, one of the professors in the University Sound Recording Technology Department, was instrumental in making the show a success.
To record and present this year's show, Steinman knew he was going to have to rely on different equipment and setups than previous years. Since the performers were recorded in their own separate dorm rooms, I needed microphones that didn't add any coloration and delivered an exceptionally natural sound, he says. As a professional audio engineer, I am very familiar with DPA's products and have used some of their 4011 mics for live and recorded applications in the past. I knew the DPA mics would be an excellent solution for this unique situation, and we deployed them for all of the strings, flute, and percussion instruments.
For the production, Steinman employed one DPA 4006 Omnidirectional Microphone on each double bass and the tympani; one 4011 Cardioid Microphone on each cello and the flute, as well as two on the harp; a 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Microphone on the acoustic guitar; 4060 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones on two violins and one viola; and two of the 4015 Wide Cardioid Microphones for percussion.
The DPA mics worked just as expected, adds Steinman. I selected the 4060s for the violins to minimize the accumulation of room tone when the string instruments are layered in multiple passes. I wanted the miniature mics to serve as a contact mic to ensure that the room didn't get in the way. I chose the 4006 for bass and tympani to achieve a more consistent sound, as well as for the double bass to reduce the potential for tone variation. No matter how often you tell students how to aim their instrument at a microphone, they re going to move. Also, the development of the
sound from the tympani and the double bass is a difficult thing to capture. The tympani with that 4006 sounds like you are in the room next to musician, I could not be happier with the way that recording turned out.
Part of the difficulty of recording the musicians stemmed from the need to utilize a vacant dormitory, where each musician had their own personal recording space and equipment setup. The dorm being a large concrete building and not exactly built to be a studio at least gave us one advantage in that every room sounded the same, explains Steinman. We had three days of recording instrumentals in the dorms, followed by about eight days of filming with the singers who sang to the pre-recorded music. For the instrumental recordings we used click-tracks along with the live audio mix, which everyone heard through their headphones, in addition to the live conductor providing cues for the musicians via a virtual platform.
Steinman was in one room and the conductor, Jeff Schweitzer, and arranger, Tom Matta, were each in their own rooms. We utilized audio talkbacks to ensure smooth communication between takes, adds Steinman. Aside from each musician having their own unique headphone mix, there was also a sound mix fed to the on-site production manager, Jamie Davis, and the director, Tony Peluso, who was based in Orlando via a high-quality audio stream.
In addition to the 15-scene Christmas at DePaul concert itself, the recorded production also includes filmed opening and closing remarks from the University's President and his wife, using 4060 miniature mics as lavaliers. A narration of the Christmas story by two of the University's theater students, which is weaved throughout the production, was captured by DePaul alum, Joe Hampton, using the 4060s and a DPA 4017 Shotgun Microphone with a wireless pack, to ensure social distancing. The 4060 and 4017 are very natural sounding in terms of voice capture, concludes Steinman.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Array of Microphones Deliver Total Transparency and Unrivaled Natural Sound for Virtual Performances Featuring School's Students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni.
