Lewes, U.K.—The opera house at Glyndebourne in England launched its 2025 season earlier this year with new audio technologies from Solid State Logic in place.
The upgrade project provided an opportunity to take a holistic view of the installed recording, broadcast, sound reinforcement and production communications systems, says Jonathan Moss, head of sound and video, Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. A network infrastructure was already in place at the 1,200-seat opera house—built in 1994 to replace the previous venue—so Dante compatibility was a key requirement for any audio component.
“We’re not really interested in buying anything that isn’t network based,” Moss emphasizes. “It all comes down to how these things work together.”
A cornerstone of the newly implemented audio system is an SSL Live L550 Plus mixing console together with a pair of L100 Plus desks and four stageboxes capable of handling up to 112 inputs. The systems fully leverage the venue’s advanced network infrastructure. The L550 Plus console provides processing, whether operated directly from the console surface, remotely via one of the L100 Plus desks or through a Live Remote Tile paired with a PC running SOLSA (SSL On/Offline Setup Application) in remote mode.
“This is an opera house,” Moss notes. “There is no front-of-house mixer position. Our control position is on the side of the stage, one floor up.”
The SSL Live system has also been integrated over Dante with both the wireless microphone system and the production communications network, laying the groundwork for a more flexible and future-proof audio environment.
The venue is equipped with three SB 32.32 stageboxes located in the rack room, with tielines distributed throughout the building. Moss explains, “[W]e rarely use more than 32 inputs on the main stage. The second is a spare for any last-minute needs, and the third goes in the pit when we’re recording. We also have an SB 16.8 in the record room.”
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Glyndebourne Productions evaluated several console options before selecting SSL Live and was ultimately drawn to its powerful cue automation. “The ability to create scene groups and apply relative changes across cues was a game-changer,” Moss says.
