Although it retains its place as a unique, historical entertainment venue, Moscow’s renowned Durov Theatre had left its audio equipment unchanged for 30 years. Unable to provide adequate sound coverage in the amphitheatre-shaped hall, it was recently replaced with a new system that includes a QSC line array and an Allen & Heath GLD digital mixing system to manage FOH and monitors.

Comprising an A&H GLD-80 console supplemented by GLD-AR2412 and GLD-AR84 I/O audio racks, the system was supplied by Russian distributor, MixArt.

‘GLD was selected for this project for several reasons,’ explains Igor Eremin, MixArt’s Professional Audio & Installation Projects Specialist. ‘First, it has a user-friendly interface similar to that of analogue mixers, so it is easy for the theatre’s sound engineers and technical staff to learn how to use it even if they had never used a digital mixer before. Second, it is a very compact system, so we were able to install it at the back of the seating area instead of putting it into a closed audio control room. Thirdly, considering the mixer’s great functionality and quality of sound, it is modestly priced

Founded in 1912 by the great clown and animal trainer, Vladimir Durov, the famous children’s theatre and circus has a large stage that extends into the seating area, so monitor lines were needed to enable performers to hear themselves from all areas on stage. It was not possible to locate the monitors on the stage as larger animals, such as elephants or bears, might step on them. Every monitor line can be controlled independently as they are assigned to dedicated output channels on GLD.

‘The theatre’s engineers now benefit from all the advantages of digital mixing technologies. They can save presets for each performance for recall at a later date, use built-in FX and dynamics processing, and use gates for the mics, instead of having to manually switch them on and off,’ Erimin concludes.