Established in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is home to three theatres, including the oldest full-scale Elizabethan stage in the Western Hemisphere – the 1,200-seat Allen Elizabethan Theatre. A longtime Clear-Com client, OSF recently added the Central Station to its FreeSpeak II Wireless Intercom and HelixNet Digital Partyline system to service both the Elizabethan and the 600-seat Angus Bowmer Theatre.
The addition proved so immediately beneficial that audio engineer Amadon Jaeger is now integrating a second Arcadia system for the 300-seat black box venue, The Thomas Theatre. Across all three venues, Arcadia will allow OSF to both increase its existing capabilities and offer the opportunity to expand its functionality.
‘Now, when we get requests from other departments who want to talk to each other we can say, “yes, that’s possible”,’ Jaeger says. ‘It’s a good feeling not to default to saying “no”, because of gear limitations.’
Although OSF’s programming remains scaled back as compared to pre-pandemic levels, there is still a significant amount of work going on behind the scenes, particularly when there are matinee and evening performances of two different plays on two different sets on the same day.
The sound department is comprised of just five employees, who are concurrently producing Rent and Romeo and Juliet in the Bowmer Theatre, The Three Musketeers and Twelfth Night in the Elizabethan, and gearing up to open Where We Belong in the Thomas Theatre.
‘Our Clear-Com system upgrade was really important for getting all our theatres working and setting up our sound team for success as we run a myriad of different shows in repertory,’ says OSF Sound Supervisor, Val Turos.
A long-time Clear-Com client, OSF has consistently upgraded its intercom system over time, with various Clear-Com legacy products and adding the HelixNet and FreeSpeak II systems between 2016 and 2018. Now, Turos says that Arcadia’s digital connectivity enhances coverage in the ‘labyrinth’ of shared spaces (dressing rooms) beneath the venues and that transitioning from XLR to Cat5 cabling has improved that coverage, especially in the Elizabethan.
‘The fact that we could upgrade so easily speaks to the flexibility of all of the [Clear-Com] systems and how they connect,’ Jaeger adds. ‘Arcadia being one integrated system allows for a degree of flexibility we’ve never been able to accomplish before. Previously, we were limited to how many channels we could create with both wired and wireless options. Now, with Arcadia, we can assign channels to any box regardless of whether it’s wired or wireless because it’s digital and all-in-one. It’s hugely beneficial. And it sounds better. We don’t have issues with echoes or different gain levels across different systems; all the problems that showed themselves are gone.’
Ultimately, the possibilities offered by the upgrade to Arcadia’s comms technology mirrors OSF’s efforts to expand the transformational power of its productions on all stages, including offerings provided via ‘O’, the digital stage.
‘We have so many more options, and we’re going to come up with things we’ve never thought of before,’ Jaeger concludes. ‘And when investigating those options, instead of having to say ‘no,’ now, the audio team at OSF can say, “yes, let’s get it done”.’
More: www.clearcom.com
