With songs from Bon Jovi co-founder David Bryan and a storyline from Joe DiPietro, new musical Memphis called on Gareth Owen for its sound design.
Set in the 1950s underground nightclubs of Memphis, Tennessee, with the racial challenges of the era and a musical mix of rock ’n’ roll, blues and gospel, the show is now running at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End. At front of house is a pair of Avid Venue control surfaces with an all-d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system serving the auditorium. V-Series enclosuers form the core proscenium system (V8 and V12 cabinets), complemented by V and J-Infra Subs, and a T-Series centre cluster. Overall, the complete system totals some 120 speakers, including a combination of E8/E6/E0s for out fill, E6 and E0s on front fill, and 57 E6s as delays –filling the theatre with the big sound that the show requires. Amplification is from a mix of d&b audiotechnik D12 and D6 amplifiers. For Gareth, the choice of d&b audiotechnik was a natural decision:
‘We really don’t have time to work out the bugs in something dramatically new, particularly on a major new production such as this,’ Owen says. ‘I’m all for trying out new products but I prefer to experiment in a controlled manner. Our approach is to make considered incremental changes so that we can make careful comparisons and identify pretty much straight away if something is working for the better, or not.’
A significant innovation for this production is the communications system, with the first ever-use of the Clear-Com Helixnet four-channel remote, as well as integrating the Clear-Com FreeSpeak wireless intercom system, which Owen used for the first time on I Can’t Sing.
‘Helixnet is just so impressive, giving us 12-channel comms down a single cable so you can pull up any channel on any pack,’ Owen elaborates. ‘Clear-Com has been working closely with the team to fine-tune certain elements, such as the latency on the side tone, especially on the four-channel status, as you do tend to get an echo on your own voice back into the headset, which is mildly off-putting. It’s great that Orbital has that relationship with the manufacturer. We went through something of a learning curve with FreeSpeak on I Can’t Sing, and as with Helixnet this time, the Clear-Com guys are great about supporting us and tweaking it to iron out any issues that we encounter. The result is a fabulous radio communications system, and we are extremely impressed with it.’
Another departure for the Gareth Owen Sound team on this show is the introduction of Shure Axient AXT400 receivers in conjunction with the UR1M transmitters. The Axient bodypack transmitters were too large to hide on an average cast member, but the combination of the standard micro UR1-M packs combined with the AXT400s is proving a success. Owen trialled these on Sister Act in Holland, noting a real difference in audio quality and on the basis of knowing The Shaftesbury Theatre inside out, was happy to introduce this as a new element on Memphis across the board. There is a very tightly knit technical team involved on the show, with Owen and his team working closely with rental company Orbital Sound. At one point in the show, the musical director has to go under the stage into a separate conductor position for one number. As a result, backstage space became very restricted and Orbital had to build special customised equipment racks to fit into a tight space in the old orchestra pit – but it all went in!
Many of the senior members of the Gareth Owen Sound team are working on this production including Associate Designer Russell Godwin, Production Engineer Chris Mace, Assistant Designer Zoe Blackford, Head of Sound Dave Palmer, Sound Number Two Andy Yiannaki and Associate Production Engineer Andy Green.
