Capilano University’s BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts is home 372-seat mid-sized liberal-arts university in North Vancouver. ‘The BlueShore at Cap,’ as it’s known, hosts a wide range of events, from theatrical productions to concert performances by the school’s music department and touring artists, including Buffy Saint-Marie, Randy Brecker and Harry Manx.

Prior to a recent system retrofit, the venue’s popularity with the community and visiting artists was pushing its basic PA system beyond its limits, and the school’s own ambitions for the space demanded a sound system that could cover all of the artistic territories the theatre, jazz and music departments had staked out. But a recent upgrade to an L-Acoustics sound system by Solotech Vancouver has put an end to that.

The new L-Acoustics system comprises Kara(i), ARCS WiFo and 8XTi elements, which Solotech’s Larry Darling specified with critical input from those who are intimately familiar with the venue’s needs: ‘We wanted to make sure that the theatre’s system would satisfy the needs of both the university’s theatre and music departments,’ says Andy Horka, an instructor who teaches sound design at Capilano University as well as serves as the resident sound designer for the Richmond Gateway Theatre and touring sound engineer for past shows like Rent, Riverdance and Annie Get Your Gun.

Horka says he first encountered L-Acoustics speakers over 15 years ago in Orlando where he did the sound design for a production of Ben Hur: The Musical. ‘It was the V-Dosc system at that time, and it was very unconventional to see a touring system in a theatre,’ he says. ‘But when I heard it, I fell in love with that sound.’

Horka worked with the theatre’s Production Technician, Brian Morrison, and Lawrence Wu, also an instructor at Capilano University’s Music Department and a live sound engineer whose music credits include 12 years as the technical director for the Canadian Rocky Mountain Festival. Together, they designed a system with L-Acoustics and Solotech that could accommodate both musical and theatrical productions.

The resultant system features seven Kara(i) speakers flown in front of three SB18i subwoofers in a centre array, with eight ARCS WiFo speakers positioned four per side as side fill. However, Horka points out that the entire system is based around the use of five coaxial 8XTi speakers used as front fill and arrayed across the front of the stage, and just below it, in soffits. These speakers are precisely aimed and time-aligned to produce imaging that keeps the sonic focus on the stage.

‘By positioning these front-fill speakers this way, we achieve a more effective overlap and much better imaging,’ he says. ‘All front-fill speakers are timed back to the intersect point [in the centre of the stage]. Combined with the rest of the system, the coverage in the theatre is incredibly even and consistent, for any type of sound.’

This also allows the system to produce substantial SPL: ‘When we were ringing out the system we measured the sound at about 112dB at FOH,’ he recalls, ‘yet we were able to carry on a normal conversation. The music was crystal clear. No distortion whatsoever. Just great sound.’

The sound designer says the Kara(i) boxes were especially good for a theatre like this. ‘It’s a big box for a room of this size but it gives us the coverage and SPL we need, but without any of the cabinet resonance that other speakers can produce,’ he explains. ‘The Kara(i) has absolutely no cabinet honking at all.’

‘The theatre has wood walls, so we needed the new system to have a high degree of directionality in order to keep the sound energy off the walls and on the seating area,’ explains Capilano’s Lawrence Wu. ‘The L-Acoustics system has excellent directionality, so we’re getting coverage exactly where we need it.’

Wu describes that the system also meets another critical requirement, which calls for the ability to use either the centre cluster, side fills or front fills alone – or in any combination – to meet the needs of a wide variety of musical artists. ‘Some of the artists really just need minimal amplification, and with this system we can use the Kara(i) speakers in the centre cluster, or the side ARCS WiFo speakers on their own,’ he says. ‘That kind of flexibility was only available from L-Acoustics.’

And people have noticed the theatre’s new sound: ‘We get lots of comments now, positive comments,’ Horka adds. ‘In fact, Martha Redbone recently performed here and she even mentioned it from the stage. And the audience applauded – imagine the audience applauding a sound system. Then you know you’ve done it right.’