That doesn't work because the musicians will have a hard time hearing themselves playing - which leads to the need of personal monitoring, which will be very expensive. And mic-ing is very difficult too because of the very high risk of feedback. And expensive because you'll need instrument specific mics.
Exactly! He (she/whatever..) has not only to be very good but very good at classic music and instruments. That's very specialized.
Exactly. Plus, a tennis court doesn't have anything you can use to hide it.
I have been quite pleased with orchestra recordings made by C.R. Fine with one, or after stereo was invented, two microphones. The best position for miking an orchestra is overhead near the front. Left and right. The vocal soloist has their own mike which is mixed in. A solo instrument can be okay in the general feed, but weak instruments are often individually miked for emphasis in broadcasting where even level near maximum is required. The supplemental mikes have to be turned up and down for the solo parts, or speech by the conductor or soloist.
These mikes are not cheap. I would suggest Shure KSM44 set to cardioid mode. There are other opinions. I was somewhat happy with KSM27 but they are out of production.
To prevent feedback, the speakers need to be installed forwards of the orchestra, out of the coverage of the mikes. Look at the setup of Wein Philharmonika for their Summer Night concert. Large speakers left and right, above and in front of the stage.
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You can do that indoors. But not open air (wind is an issue at that distance) and not with the speakers hidden in the orchestra. And it should be invisible. I don't know how you want to hide the mic stands for the OH, there's no truss, no nothing.
They had a truss, a solid background, closed sides, a roof, sound protection panels and no need for invisible speakers, so LAs and delay lines.
Jim,
A standard tennis court is 78 feet long and 36 feet wide, which equates to 23.77 meters by 10.97 meters and covers an area of 2,808 square feet (260.87 square meters).
Draw a diagram of the "classical" instruments used, quantity of each, their arrangement on the tennis court, and the audience location and seating.
Then do your PAG /NAG (Potential Acoustic Gain/Needed Acoustic Gain) calculations.
https://www.shure.com/en-US/support/tools/pag-nag-calculator
You will then be able to visualize a portion of the complexity required to achieve decent results for what you want to build.
Proper sound reinforcement for classic orchestral instruments is an order of magnitude more complex and demanding than for rock music, even before you put the invisible system requirement on it 😉
Art
You know, I don't know why you would need sound reinforcement in such a small place.
If we're talking small string quartet then four mikes, a simple PA and two simple small speakers above and around the performers ought to be enough. Just be very careful in the mix and the location not to bother the performers nor to destroy the imaging for the listeners.
But if you're talking anything half way to symphonic size, then that space is simply too small and the orchestra will overwhelm the space. The last thing you'd need is a PA.
I guess, bottom-line, there is something missing in the requirements:
What is the size of the ensemble? Kronos String Quarter or the Vienna Philharmonic?
If we're talking small string quartet then four mikes, a simple PA and two simple small speakers above and around the performers ought to be enough. Just be very careful in the mix and the location not to bother the performers nor to destroy the imaging for the listeners.
But if you're talking anything half way to symphonic size, then that space is simply too small and the orchestra will overwhelm the space. The last thing you'd need is a PA.
I guess, bottom-line, there is something missing in the requirements:
What is the size of the ensemble? Kronos String Quarter or the Vienna Philharmonic?
Precisely! And the requirement of invisibilty and perfect sound reproduction are on exactly the opposite end of the scale.
It almost seems the thread starter wanted it to make is as hard as possible to help him by refusing to give any more details. I think almost everyone taking part in this discussion asked the same questions. The same goes for the budget. No effort in on your side = none results out.
So let's make it a bit more clear:
@Jim-Mellon:
NOBODY can help you unless you give these informations!
Maybe you've got an idea of a speaker and wanted somebody to suggest just that as confirmation - a forum doesn't work that way.
Excellent link, perfect tool to get a very close estimate for speech reproduction. You have to apply experience to translate it to music/instruments in terms of level and frequency range or microphone type but it still gives a good idea in terms of # of mics, feedback and general level estimate.