The Posthuis Theater in Heerenveen, in the Dutch province of Friesland, has renewed its long-standing relationship with Allen & Heath with an upgrade of its audio system. ‘We used to work on an Allen & Heath S2 back when mixing was handled from the lighting booth,’ says Eric Noorman, a veteran technician with more than 40 years of experience at the venue, who has overseen its recent move to digital working.

Partnered with an Allen & Heath CDM32 MixRack with AES I/O card and AHM32 Matrix Processor, and a DX32 modular expander, a freshly installed dLive C3500 Surface in the theatre’s large hall brings the venue fully up to date as part of a comprehensive audio ecosystem serving the historic building’s various spaces and rooms.

Following a period of research and reflection, Noorman found dLive to be his preferred choice: ‘Most digital mixers were not intuitive to me,’ he says. ‘However, when I tested the dLive C3500, I didn’t have that issue. This console has a nice analogue feel in terms of layout – at least if you set it up that way – which allowed me to quickly get familiar with the workflow. It was very quick and easy for me and the team.’

The dLive C3500 surface features a pair of 12-inch touchscreens, 24 faders, 19 assignable SoftKeys and six assignable rotaries, providing the theatre’s technical team with a wealth of physical control from a relatively compact footprint. The CDM32 offers 32 mic/line inputs, 16 line outputs and an audio networking I/O port, which the theatre has loaded with an AES 4-input/6-output card with 128 channels of input processing and 64 configurable mix buses.

The AHM-32 Matrix Processor and DX32 expander serve as a system preset controller for a new Martin Audio Torus constant curvature array loudspeaker system. To facilitate any show with options for analogue and digital inputs for LCR and sub, the DX32 is fully loaded with a combination of AES and analogue cards allowing the presets to be selected via the AHM. The CDM32 MixRack is connected to the DX32 via AES for default operation.

Supplied by Ampco Flashlight Sales, the set-up provides the theatre with unprecedented flexibility. ‘Visiting technicians can easily choose how they want to control the new Martin Audio system with just the push of a button,’ Noorman says. ‘Thanks to the extensive patch panel, various theatre groups can continue to use their own connections quickly and easily, both via AES and analogue.’