When the Empire Theatre burned down in 1933, it marked the start of a glorious rebirth. Located in Toowoomba, two hours from Brisbane in Australia, residents have fought to preserve this Art Deco treasure. ‘Within nine months it had been rebuilt to what we see now,’ says Steve Alexander from the theatre technical department. ‘The proscenium is Australian Heritage listed, and any changes at the theatre have to fulfil more than just technical expectations.’
The theatre had been a popular movie venue until it closed in the early 1970s. After being un-used for almost 25 years, the run-down venue was purchased in 1997 and renovated by the local council. It was improved and up-to-date front of house facilities were added. Backstage, a new fly tower was created.
At front-of-house, were a 56-channel Midas Pro6 digital console with a 32-channel Midas Venice 320 console as a secondary mixer. In addition to the Pro6’s onboard audio processing, an extensive outboard selection included a Klark Teknik DN9331 Rapide Helix EQ with remote, a Yamaha SPX 2000 effects unit, a TC Electronic D2 Delay , two dbx 160A compressors, Klark Teknik DN504Plus four-channel compressor, two dbx 1066 expander/gate/compressors, a BSS DPR 504 quad gate and five ARX Afterburner dual-channel compressors. A large range of wired and wireless microphones was assembled, as was a collection of DI boxes. The A/V and lighting systems were similary extensive and well chosen.
‘That really brought the theatre into the 21st century,’ Alexander says. ‘When I joined as Head of Audio two years ago, the only thing that required attention was the PA system, not through neglect, but just the fact that it had been well used and was in need of some attention.’
Alexander, a native of Toowoomba, brought 20 years’ experience to the Empire: ‘Previously I’d devoted my time to numerous productions and musical theatre. I worked nine years with a production company in Brisbane, and another 11 touring productions around Australia and Asia.’
He set about assessing and justifying the improvements needed. ‘We’re all very proud of our theatre including The Friends of the Empire who are a large group of volunteers involved in ushering and so on,’ he says. ‘So in suggesting change, I had to work towards consensus. We now have a d&b audiotechnik T-Series system supplied by National Audio Systems and we’re really happy with it. However, to get to this point we conducted several in house tests, and I created a decision matrix against which we judged the contenders.’
As a civic-owned venue, Alexander had to justify purchase decision very clearly: ‘My touring experience gave me a good idea of what sonic performance markers we needed and what would suit the venue. We don’t get a lot of rock and roll in here so the majority of our performances are theatrical related. It also needed to be physically discreet; we didn’t want some large visually intrusive system ruining the aesthetic beauty of the proscenium. We took a long look at people’s riders to see what the leading preferences were. The d&b system ticked all those boxes. The system was colour matched beautifully to the proscenium’s colour, and the coverage across the auditorium is excellent. The final factor was support; if we needed more cabinets or spares it was good to know that just two hours away was a sizable stock of d&b rental gear readily available in Brisbane.’
At just over 1,500 seats the Empire is the largest regional auditorium in Australia. Acoustically, it is ‘not too dry, not too reverberant, but just right’. The balcony is deep and wide but Dave Jacques from NAS, who made the installation design is rightly proud of the fact that he was able to rig the d&b T-Series system in such a way as to negate the need for under balcony fills completely. ‘We did just add a pair of Ci80s right at the very back, but only as a mix delay for the desk position,’ he says.
The low end could have been another issue…
‘We didn’t really want subwoofers stacked at the bottom of the pros,’ says Alexander. ‘Dave and I decided to try the d&b B4-Subs in the Juliet boxes. Since we re-opened in September with the new system, sound engineers come in, look at it and say “that can’t work”. Then they try it, and it does – and very well at that, giving good low end delivery across the stalls and the balcony.’
To complete the picture, Jacques placed three tiny d&b E0 loudspeakers across the front of stage for fill. ‘That underlines just how comprehensive the coverage is from the main flown T system,’ Alexander says. ‘Already we’re getting productions turn up with a truck load of PA – the sound engineer arrives, takes a look at the house system and leaves the kit on the dock. These guys don’t even want to fiddle with the system EQ. With the hundredth anniversary of the founding of The Empire in 2011 we’re in perfect shape for the next century.’
