An amateur theatre company based in Warwickshire, the Rugby Theatre stages ten shows each year to professional standards, providing live entertainment almost 50 weeks of the year as well as screening the latest films. Staffed and run entirely by volunteers, productions include drama, farce, musicals and theatrical classics, while visiting performers and productions feature brass bands, children’s dance, opera and celebrity speakers.
Autograph Sales & Installations was called in by the theatre to determine why vocal clarity and intelligibility in the venue did not match up to other elements of productions. After acoustic testing and A/B comparisons, the theatre commissioned Autograph to supply and install a new sound system based on EM Acoustics loudspeakers, a Soundcraft digital console and a selection of new microphones.
At the core of the new system is a suite of loudspeakers from EM Acoustics’ EMS Series, comprising a pair of EMS-126 two-way passive full range speakers which cover the stalls, three compact EMS-81s for the circle and two ultra-compact EMS-51s as front fill. LF is handled by a pair of EMS-115C subwoofers and the entire system is powered and digitally processed by just two Lab.gruppen D-Series amplifiers, a 40:4L and an 80:4L respectively.
The theatre’s former AV Group Leader Simon Smith was closely involved in the tender process: ‘As an entirely voluntarily run amateur theatre, with no professional staff, Autograph’s knowledge and experience was key to helping us to address significant issues that we were having, particularly around vocal clarity in musicals, ‘ he says. ‘One of our principal objectives was to achieve a solution which would allow the theatre to push standards ever closer to professional levels.’
‘The first major test of our new system was during our October production of the musical Jekyll and Hyde,’ adds Luke McMaster who has recently assumed Smith’s role. ‘As soon as the band fired up for the first time we could immediately hear the difference. The overall mix was stunning, and any instrument could be picked out by ear during any number, a vast improvement on our previous system.’
‘The new digital desk gave us the flexibility and processing ability we required when we needed to add vocals to the mix, but the biggest improvement came when it was wound up to show volumes with a full house audience. Especially at higher volumes, when the previous system would have merged into an incoherent mess, the vocals were still crystal clear even in the big chorus numbers. The EM Acoustics loudspeaker system performed magnificently and did us all proud.’
‘A big thank you to Adam from Autograph, whose input and expertise during the tech rehearsals was very insightful in giving us some tips and tricks in order to get the best out of our system, all while making a few tweaks to the set-up to ensure it’s working at its best,’ McMaster concludes. ‘The new system is a vast step up in quality and will allow us as a theatre to further develop and improve our skills as well as hit those high production values that we strive for.’
