Roland M-5000 from FOH position at the CERES Award Ceremony.

The prestigious CERES Awards Ceremony takes place each year in the stunning Roman Theatre of Mérida in Spain – a 2000 year old Roman venue still being used for live theatre productions. Roland ProAV products have been supporting the event for the past three years but this year was the first time that a full Roland setup was specified with the new Roland M-5000C controlling the monitors and the M-5000 at the heart as the FOH console. The Mérida Theatre has been home to the Festival de Mérida (Festival of Classical Theatre of Mérida) since 1933, the oldest of its kind celebrated in Spain. For the fourth year the CERES Award Ceremony took place at Mérida at the end of the run of ten summer productions at the theatre with the awards presented to those involved.

Nico Suárez explains the Roland mixing system used at the Ceres Theatre Awards Ceremony.

Mixing the live theatre production, broadcasting live for Spanish television and mixing live musicians all at the same, the Roland setup included the M-5000 running 90 channels and both 5.1 + Left/Right in FOH and the M-5000C controlling wedges, in-ears and personal monitoring systems. The Roland S-4000S-3208, S-2416, S-1608, S-0816 Digital Snake solutions took care of all the inputs and outputs for the stage, OB van, PA and microphones.

In a setup that truly demonstrated the flexibility and adaptability of the O.H.R.C.A configurable architecture of the M-5000 and M-5000C, the consoles delivered seamlessly for three applications simultaneously – broadcast, theatre and live music. The M-5000 at FOH position mixed down 90 channels delivered from the I/O boxes on the stage before splitting the signals down to the M-5000C used as the monitor console. This was done using one pre-amp for each line for both consoles. The configurable architecture of the M-5000 really came into its own running both a traditional Left/Right system and at the same time a full 5.1 system to feed the video mapping on the theatre wall. The feed from inputs on the back panel of the M-5000 and another I/O box (the Roland S-0816 8 x 16 FOH Unit) for video control were used to send all the video feeds to the OB van for the live television broadcast.

Roland M-5000C from the monitor position.

In the stage area the 32 inputs provided by the Roland S-4000S-3208 Digital Snake were used just for inputs from the bands playing at the ceremony, different inputs for the stage band and for guest bands. The inputs on a second unit (Roland S-1608) were used for extra monitors around the stage area. On one side of the stage 16 wireless microphones were connected to the inputs of a Roland S-2416 Stage Unit. The outputs of the S-2416 were used to feed the amplifiers and PA system close by.

The compact M-5000C simultaneously controlled three types of monitors for the ceremony – traditional wedge monitors, in ear monitors and the Roland M-48 personal monitoring system. The engineer could hear and adjust all three types of monitors from console position using a wedge, a beltpack to hear the in ears and an M-48 control unit for the M-48’s. The 2 Solo Busses on the M-5000C allowed one Solo Bus to be assigned to the wedges and one to the in ears. Each member of the stage band had their own M-48 allowing them to control and listen to their own mixes - great for broadcast where the monitors on stage should not be loud.

Pepe Ferrer with the Roland M-5000C.

Pepe Ferrer, Sound System Designer and FOH engineer: “The CERES ceremony is possibly one of the most complicated shows we work on every year. When we started to see this year's requirements and the script I immediately thought that this is a job for the M-5000. I’m glad we had the opportunity to use it; it behaved really well and fast. Also we noticed a level up in terms of audio quality compared to other consoles we have been using in previous years. From now on, M-5000 will be my choice, no doubts."

Nico Suárez, Tech Support Roland ProAV: “This kind of production that combine live music, with theatre acts, and on top of that, have to be broadcasted live; is where the O.H.R.C.A technology unveils all of its potential; rapidly adapting to all the various needs and offering appropriate workflows for each moment. It’s like have three consoles in one."

Full product list:
1 x Roland M-5000 Live Digital Mixing Console
1 x Roland M-5000C Compact Live Digital Mixing Console
1 x Roland S-4000S-3208 32 x 8 Modular Stage Unit
1 x Roland S-2416 24 x 16 Stage Unit
1 x Roland S-1608 16 x 8 Stage Unit
1 x Roland S-0816 8 x 16 FOH Unit
8 x Roland M-48 Personal Monitoring Systems
1 x Roland R-1000 Standalone Recorder