Schuckmann, Richard

Acoustician, consultant for audio and video technology

Born: 31.08.1952 in Nuremberg

died: 31.05.2009 in Wiesbaden

His specialty was acoustics. As one of Wiesbaden's first communards and a member of the Autonomous Communication Center, he grew his hair long, which, together with his Ray-Ban sunglasses and leather jacket, remained his trademark for the rest of his life. In 1975, he co-founded WAV (Werkstatt für Audio und Videotechnik), a store on Blücherplatz that became a meeting place for the music scene.

Schuckmann himself also "made music", as he called it, including in legendary sessions with the Full Moon Archestra. In 1986, he commented on the state of the nation with "The Kohlibries" and the LP "Aufwärts/Heile Welt" (electro-funk with samples of a Helmut Kohl speech). In 1986-93, he brought highlights such as Maceo Parker and the silent film "Battleship Potemkin", accompanied by French jazz musicians, to the Wartburg as part of the "Akzente" association.

In Darmstadt in 1988, he took over the acoustic consulting, sound reinforcement and live mixing for the concert series "That's Jazz, the Sound of the 20th Century", with international greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey. He was also involved in the Hofheim Jazz Festival. In 1993, he was involved in the "Noise Tunnel" at the German Health and Safety Exhibition in Dortmund. He also provided conference technology for the European Roundtable in Berlin in 1994 and consulting for the Commerzbank Arena in 2005, where he also provided sound for Eintracht Frankfurt matches. As an acoustics expert, Schuckmann was a sought-after speaker at the International Music Fair. Since 1997, he has taught room acoustics and studio construction at the School of Audioengineering (SAE) in Frankfurt am Main. In Wiesbaden, there has been lively cooperation with the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden, the Cultural Office, the Media Workshop and the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences, among others.

With the vision of a sound archive in the form of a walk-in acoustic planetarium, a unique first sound world was created in the NONAM (North America Native Museum) Zurich, in a team with Harald Brandt and Hein Schoer. It was opened in 2008 as "Arctic Soundscape - the World of the Inuit" and received an award from the Swiss UNESCO Commission in 2010.