The installation is part of a six-month refurbishment programme in the Main House auditorium. ‘The Theatre Royal Main House is principally a receiving venue, handling a wide variety of different live entertainment genres, from stand-up and the spoken word, through live bands and playback, to full-scale musicals,’ says Technical Manager, Joe Wright. ‘Upgrading the FOH sound system during the refurb was at the top of our list, on the basis that our previous system had been in place since the mid 1980s, and was getting a little tired. It also had two main failings, in that it lacked any sub bass and the coverage of the stalls was poor.
‘We needed a system that not only gave great sound reproduction across the board, but also was flexible enough that we could adapt it to whatever was required by the production. Above all, we wanted a system that visiting sound engineers would be familiar with, and would be able to use in place of touring equipment. This in turn would minimise the amount of time spent rigging additional speakers during fit-ups.’
After speaking to a variety of freelance engineers, to verify their system and set-up preferences when visiting the venue, the Theatre Royal settled on the d&b Q7 system: ‘d&b currently represents one of the most popular choices with touring companies, and as we already have d&b speakers installed in both the Egg and Ustinov Theatres here, we knew the build and sound quality we would be getting,’ Joe Wright continues. ‘We met with Steve Jones from d&b and discussed a range of possible options. Due to the ornate nature of the Theatre Royal main house auditorium, we were slightly hampered by the fact that the new speakers would have to be sited in the same place as the previous speakers.
‘We discussed how to achieve the best possible coverage of the auditorium, agreeing on three Q7s per side – sited as close to the proscenium as possible – with a pair of Q10 side fills covering the stalls; all to be powered by D6 amps. The system is supplemented by a pair of Q-Subs, powered by a D12 amp. This gave the best compromise between speaker positions, sound quality and coverage. Since completing the installation, the system has dealt with everything we have thrown at it and the response from engineers has been very positive. We have some more plans on the stocks – involving surround and delays for each auditorium level, as well as more subs to extend the bass frequencies. Also on the list is a centre cluster and extra front fills to create a fuller, better coverage – but that’s something for the future.’
Orbital’s relationship with the Theatre Royal pre-dates this project, having previously supplying the d&b Q7 system for the Egg theatre for children during 2010.
