Montreux Jazz Festival

The Montreux Jazz Festival library is the largest testimony of live music recorded in one place, both in audio and video, for the past 40 years. Montreux Sounds SA, owner of the Montreux Jazz Festival audio and video archives, has acquired a large collection of footage. Since 1981 Montreux Sounds relies on Sony technology in order to ensure the best possible quality of their video material. 1991 marked another milestone as the company decided to record the footage in High Definition – again choosing Sony as their technology partner.

Eric Glardon, Chief Technician and Operator of Montreux Sounds talks about the importance of HD and why they use Sony HD equipment for simulcast and recording.

Mr Glardon, why have you chosen to record in High Definition?
HD means brilliant picture quality and is definitely the format of the future. For our work at Montreux Sounds HD is very important, as we have an archive of material from the Montreux Jazz Festival from the past years. As broadcasters and consumers alike increasingly demand HD format, we have to convert older material that was recorded in Standard Definition into HD. Moreover, the footage we record is broadcast in countries like the USA or Japan, where HDTV is already standard.


Which Sony products do you use at the Montreux Jazz Festival for the live-recordings and transmission in High Definition?

From the simple headset to the complex equipment in a broadcast van up to a powerful HiFi-system, flat screens and professional camcorders, Sony is present with its HD range throughout our recording workflow. For the recording of the approximately hundred concerts on the two main stages - the Stravinski Hall and the Miles Davis Hall - we use about 15 Sony HD systems cameras. Moreover we apply two professional Sony Video Tape Recorders (VTR) as well as a Sony XPRI editing system, which we use for post production in HD. For the recording of the material we have used Sony HDCAM and HDV tapes for several years now.

How important are the Sony Digital Master™ tape for HDV and HDCAM™ tapes for Montreux Sounds?
In the light of an increasing demand of material in HD format, they have become more and more crucial for us. We use HDCAM tapes for the recording of the indoor concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival. All outdoor activities, concerts and also interviews are recorded on Digital Master™ tapes. We have several customers worldwide who do not have the facilities to transfer their material from their computer editing system to tape. For this reason we get many orders from other companies to transmit footage from their visual equipment to HDCAM™ tapes. They can then further use it for broadcasting and advertisement, for example.

Do you use the HD technology only for simulcast or also for other purposes?
At the Montreux Jazz Festival we use HD solutions most of all for simulcast. But HD is a very important format for us regarding the many old recordings we made of the Montreux Jazz Festival before we started to record in High Definition. Thanks to the Sony technology we are able to easily convert footage recorded in Standard Definition to the HD format. With almost 40 years worth of recording material and much more to come, we have to be sure that this footage is stored on reliable tapes and can be used for as many purposes as possible.

Which are the advantages of Sony?
Sony has been a very reliable, experienced and competent partner for us since 1981. We evaluated other suppliers of HD technology, but with its advanced product range and compatibility, Sony is still the only choice for us. We will certainly strengthen our collaboration with Sony and evaluate their products when considering new technologies. One possible option we are considering right now is the use of Blu-ray Discs.

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