Hosting both cinema screenings and live events, the 500-capacity Regal Theatre in Redruth occupies a 1930s art deco building. Recently, the community facility, installed a new PA able to cater for its wide variety of shows – including am-dram, touring tribute acts, operatic societies and nationally recognised stand-up comedians. Importantly, it needed to banish the hotspotting that was evident in the building’s challenging acoustic that includes a balcony tier and ‘stepped’ ceiling above.
Local contractor TruCru handled the overhaul of the sound system, replacing the theatre’s archaic system with a new Martin Audio FlexPoint.
While TruCru hs had widespread experience of specifying the Martin Audio CDD loudspeaker series elsewhere, in this instance both project manager Toby Bodman, and Ben Tucker, from Martin Audio’s Product Support Group, agreed that the shorter throw of the FlexPoint point source speaker would provide a more appropriate solution, with output and dispersion better suited to the room and the balcony rake.
‘Certain bits didn’t quite work or had been cobbled together to make it work,’ Bodman says of the earlier system. ‘Because of these issues, the coverage had been very spotty. The client therefore wanted not only the best system to cater to the entire space but one that would provide as even a coverage as possible.’
Any doubts that FlexPoint would be able to throw to the very back of the steeply raked Circle and under-balcony were immediately allayed at the demo stage. ‘Any scepticism disappeared immediately, and even I was a little surprised just how far back it threw and was generally blown away with its overall performance. In fact the overriding comment from those who have heard the system was the extent to which the sound has improved. My one concern was a very fast reflection at the back of the under-balcony, but such is the efficiency of the system that you really don’t notice it at all.’
The new set-up uses an LR pair of FP12 boxes mounted high on the proscenium for circle coverage, and a further pair beneath for the majority of stalls. Two smaller FP8s cover from the middle of the stalls, with four compact FP4s positioned along the front lip of the stage for the pit and front rows of the stalls. An exposed stacked pair of SX215 subwoofers on each side of the stage occupy the positions of the previous subs, and six Blackline X15B have been provided for stage monitoring.
TruCru worked around existing rigging points and ran new cable, although the signal remains in the analogue domain. A pair of dedicated DX4.0 system controllers store the DSP.
‘Aside from the punch that’s packed in such a small profile, it is also so lightweight,’ Bodman observes .’For example, the 12-inch box is lighter than some other smaller 10-inch boxes we have in our hire stock. It’s just a fantastic sounding box delivering so much SPL from such a compact form factor – and the venue’s tech team fully agree.’
More: https://martin-audio.com
