ORF and SIVision are Ready to Broadcast the New Year’s Concert 2011

The televised production of the concert is in the hands of the ORF, with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) acting as partner for the transmission across Europe and with the HD OBVan of SIVision for the production of The New Year's Concert in High Definition and 5.1 Surround Sound.

18 HD Cameras will cover the Concert in 2011

Compared with the coverage of the New Year’s Concert in 1990 with seven HD cameras, the 2011 concert will be covered with 15 Sony HDC-1500 cameras and one Sony HDC-P1 camera all with Canon lenses, including the remotely operated two SuperTower 6, one SuperTower 20 and one Filou Drive RailCam from PMT. Two additional MiniCam heads (one HD 1200 from LMP and one Cameleon from LMC) are placed on stage within the orchestra. Three HDC-1500 cameras (one on a Steadicam) are dedicated to the ballet – dancing into the Musikverein Building and up the stairways into the concert hall.

Camera Positions

All the camera signals will be composed by director Brian Large on a Sony MVS-8000 vision switcher to generate the transmission signal. Of course the concert will be transmitted in 5.1 Surround Sound. Therefore the sound engineers of ORF have arranged a Decca Tree and a Hamasaki Square above the orchestra. In addition some microphones are clearly assigned to the instruments. All together 33 microphones (mainly from Schoeps plus some from AKG and Sennheiser) are connected via stageboxes and an Optocore LX4 optical digital network with the HD OBVan to deliver their signals to a Lawo mc²66 audio mixer in the dedicated audio area where a Klein+Hummel 5.1 monitoring system enables the ORF Tonmeister Alfred Zavrel and his sound engineers to control and mix the 5.1 signal.

Production Areas in the HD OBVan

In addition to the live transmission all the camera signals will be recorded on Sony HDCAM VTRs while the microphone signals will be recorded onto a Nuendo 64-track hard disk system from Nuendo for post-production purposes at the linear HD edit suite at ORF. Already on 7th January 2011 the CD of the concert will be released and on 14th January 2011 the DVD will follow.

More than 80 people are working in the team of production manager Johannes Hoche to keep the standard of the New Year’s Concert at the highest level. This includes in addition to the cameramen and the sound engineers of course the stage managers, stage-lighters and graphic designers. For Imre Sereg (CEO of SIVision) it will be the 5th New Year’s Concert (three with Alfacam and now the second for his own company) while for the director Brian Large it is the last one in a row of more than ten.

In view of the tradition of the New Year's Concerts, which began during the Second World War, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the concert even today not only as a presentation of Viennese musical culture at the highest level, but also to send the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace.

In addition to compositions from the rich repertoire of the Strauss family and its contemporaries, this year's program includes the Mephisto Waltz No. 1, by Franz Liszt. This composer is being honored on the occasion of his 200th birthday which occurs in 2011.

The Program of the New Years Concert 2011

Johann Strauß  -  Reiter-Marsch, op. 428
Johann Strauß  -  Donauweibchen. Walzer, op. 427
Johann Strauß  -  Debut-Quadrille, op. 2
Josef Lanner    -  Die Schönbrunner. Walzer, op. 200
Johann Strauß  -  Muthig voran! Polka schnell, op. 432

Break

Johann Strauß  -  Csárdás aus "Ritter Pasman"
Johann Strauß  -  Abschieds-Rufe. Walzer, op. 179
Johann Strauß Vater  -  Furioso-Galopp nach Liszt’s Motiven, op. 114
Franz Liszt       -  Mephisto-Walzer I
Josef Strauß     -  Aus der Ferne. Polka mazur, op. 270
Johann Strauß  -  Spanischer Marsch, op. 433
Joseph Hellmesberger  -  Zigeunertanz aus "Die Perle von Iberien"
Johann Strauß Vater  -  Cachucha-Galopp, op. 97
Josef Strauß     -  Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb und Lust. Walzer, op. 263