Video Enhancement at the Houston Symphony

During the second movement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, an ‘oriental’ melody recurs played by different members of the woodwind section. But Houston Symphony audience members don’t have to crane their necks to identify who plays when. Instead, the Symphony’s in-hall video screens, provided in part by the Herzstein Charitable Foundation, can display a close-up of the bassoonist the moment his solo begins. How does that shot reach the screen at the right moment?

Days earlier, Melissa McCrimmon studies the concert’s music scores and marks shots she anticipates using. In the measures of music before that bassoonist’s solo begins, she has one eye on the music and the other on control room monitors, selecting the picture that best enhances what audience members hear at any specific point in the music. “My goal is to show audiences the full spectrum of the orchestra,” says McCrimmon, “from musicians playing the melody to those playing harmony or rhythm. Each instrument has an important role in the piece performed.”

Richard Yeats oversaw initial installation of the video system. As technical director, he uses the video switcher to bring the shot of the bassoonist to the in-hall screens on McCrimmon’s cue. When performers from the jazz or pop arenas are on the program, Yeats often directs and technical directs at the same time, calling shots on the fly without the guidance of a score.

McCrimmon directs camera operators like Carl Lucas to have the shot of the bassoonist ready while the preceding shot is still on display. Camera operators must be able to find English horns to glockenspiels with only a few second’s notice.

As shots appear on screen, Don Elrond uses the oscilloscope or waveform monitor to help maintain the highest quality picture possible on the screens, even if the camera is thrown off by changing lighting conditions. The crew’s jack-of-all-trades, Elrond sometimes operates cameras or mans the video switcher.

Yeats sums up the inspiration behind his video enhancement work as follows: “A lady told me her late husband had performed many years with the New York Philharmonic playing piano. Sitting in the audience she could see him onstage but was never able to see his hands grace the keys. During a [Houston Symphony] performance, we featured the hands of a piano soloist on the screens, and with tears in her eyes, this woman said it made the experience personal and rewarding. It is to that woman I dedicate all my efforts.”

Richard Yeats & Melissa McCrimmon

Don Elrond

Carl Lucas

Related Link:

Press Release - Nation's First Permanently Installed Symphony Video System