Detroit Opera Radio Broadcasts
Sly Pup Productions has provided live stereo broadcast audio mixes for Detroit Opera since 2022. Our live mixes are heard on Detroit classical & jazz music station 90.9 WRCJ, and feature live pre-show commentary from the station’s hosts. From 2022 to 2025 seasons we have worked on both traditionally-presented and innovative performances including The Valkyries, Cosi fan tutti, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and Cage’s Europeras 3 & 4.
Navigating our tech within the historic Detroit Opera House was initially a challenge, but we were in good hands working with the guidance of IATSE engineers Chris and Henry. Our control room was built during tech week in a 4th floor classroom. We settled on fiber-optics to transport redundant Dante audio, remote preamp control, and a reference video feed between the pit to our mixing position. About 400 feet of tactical fiber cable was required for the task.
“[The mixes] sound amazing. It’s like listening to The Met broadcasts...”
In the pit and in the house, depending on the show, we used 20 to 40 channels of high quality Scheops, DPA, Microtech Gefell, and Sennheiser microphones to capture the performers. A carefully placed array of PCCs was used across the lip of the stage for natural-sounding vocal pickup, and occasionally we added mics offstage or built into the scenic elements for anything that needed a boost upstage.
Multitrack recording was also requested for most performances, and we used redundant multitrack hardware recorders to guarantee a successful delivery for every show.
Unfortunately, in the Fall of 2025 our work at Detroit Opera has concluded due to budget restrictions. We hope that we can help bring these shows to a wider audience again soon!
