Opened as the Central Collegiate Building Auditorium in 1968, and subsequently the Collegiate Theatre, The Bloomsbury Theatre got its present name in 1982 and has hosted theatre, music, dance and comedy since. Fiercly proud to be part of University College London (UCL), the venus works with students and researchers to bring ground-breaking discoveries to the stage.
In 2018, 50 years after its first performance, the landmark Brutalist building reopened following a major renovation to update its main auditorium, which now boasts more than 500 luxurious seats. The final part of the renovation was the installation and commissioning of a significant EM Acoustics Halo-C PA system by theatre specialist, Autograph Sound.
‘There’s a bit of a back story here, given that we in fact supplied the system before the renovation,’ Autograph’s Adam Broom explains. ‘As it made no sense to replace a system that had only just been replaced, it went into storage. Julian Brooks was appointed Technical Manager of The Bloomsbury in 2019 and he soon realised that the system needed some expertise to realise its full potential.’
Having worked with both Autograph and Broom in the past, Brooks turned to the company again for assistance. ‘The Halo-C system was specified originally for live music and stand-up but the diversity of our programme means we really needed a bit more flexibility,’ says Brooks. ‘Also, post-refurb the room was acoustically different and so I called upon Adam for assistance, to improve the capabilities and tuning of our system to handle musical theatre, commercial productions, student shows (as part of the theatre’s connection with UCL) and pretty much anything else we might be asked to do.’
‘It was the perfect opportunity to look at the system design again with fresh eyes based on the programme of events the venue caters for in a season, which had definitely evolved since the original system design,’ Broom agrees. ‘We predicted the space in Ease, re-hung and re-tuned the PA, added a pair of EMS-126s, and upgraded the system processing to Q-SYS as it offers a more flexible and unified control platform that suits the venue’s programme and changing technical staff.’
‘The Halo-C is a good, crisp system and adding a couple of EMS-126s as an LR circle system has made the coverage really smooth throughout the house,’ Brooks concurs. ‘Autograph also assisted us in updating the system processing to Q-Sys which, among much else, gives us proper time-alignment and presets for different routing options via a custom interface.’
The LCR system comprises three EM Acoustics Halo-C boxes per side for the stalls, and a centre cluster of seven Halo-C boxes supplemented by an EMS-118 sub per side. Four EMS-61s serve as front fill, with two EMS-126s as the circle LR system and a further two EMS-81X as circle fill.
‘The combination of Autograph’s experience and EM’s loudspeakers has allowed us to achieve what we set out to do,’ Brooks concludes. ‘It’s simple and easy to use, while retaining the flexibility to change things if we need to.’
