Along the River During the Qingming Festival is one of the ten most famous
paintings in China. It captures the daily life of people and the landscape of the
capital, Bianjing, today’s Kaifeng, from the Northern Song period. Successive scenes
reveal the lifestyle of all levels of society from rich to poor, as well as different
economic activities in the countryside and the city, with manifest period clothing
and architecture.

Chinese violin artist Ms. Song Fei is hailed by the media as the “new generation of
talented female violin players”, “world-famous contemporary Chinese erhu player
among international orchestras”, “leader in Chinese folk music’ and “Chinese erhu
Queen’.

Contrary to most of the art pieces, that were first in the form of music and later in
images, SongFei’s Along the River During the Qingming Festival musical was based
on the famous painting that was made nearly a thousand years ago. This
performance combined music with image to create a tremendously authentic
spectacle, leading the audience to walk through that period of time. SongFei’s Along
the River During the Qingming Festival musical performed two days in November,
at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.

Combining audio and visual without disturbing the integral aesthetics was the first
consideration of the director.

Chief sound designer of this musical, Mr. Tian, about the reason he chose an Alcons
solution: “The Alcons QR24 pro-ribbon line-source column is especially suitable for
these kinds of performances in theatres, as its low profile does not affect the
decoration of the stage scenery.’

In this musical, a total of 12 Alcons QR24 pro-ribbon array columns and 4 Alcons
BF362 subwoofers were deployed to cover the auditorium. The QR24 comprises four
6.5′ woofers with two 12′ proprietary RBN1203 pro-ribbon tweeters; The BF362
features double 18′ woofers in X-venting configuration. All speaker systems were
driven by Alcons Sentinel 10 4-channel DSP amplified loudspeaker controllers, with
192kHz AES3 inputs.

The music melted into the scene with Alcons’ high-resolution sound reproduction and
Mr. Tian gave a thumbs-up for Alcons’ excellent performance. “Alcons really
surprised me; When I set up an Alcons sound system, the only thing I need to do is
to recall the right factory setting in the processor and what I got is crystal-clear Hifi
sound without any EQ or adjustment needed.’

“The coverage angle of this speaker is so well controlled that it offers a flat SPL
throughout the audience, while also reducing the disturbance to the artists on stage
hugely.’, Mr. Tian analysed the advantages of Alcons QR24.

Miss Chen, the general director of this musical also gave particularly high
evaluation for the clear sound of the speaker and the excellent feedback from the
visitors.