Part of an upgrade to its technical systems, Canadian multi-venue theatre production company Drayton Entertainment has invested in three Allen & Heath dLive S Class systems

The company operates seven theatres located in regional communities, comprising the Cambridge Dunfield Theatre, the Huron Country Playhouse and Playhouse II in Grand Bend, the King’s Wharf Theatre, the St Jacobs Country Playhouse, the Schoolhouse Theatre in St Jacobs, and the flagship Drayton Festival Theatre.

The dLive systems all comprise S7000 Surfaces and DM64 MixRacks, which have been provided by Drayton Entertainment’s long-time audio partner, Angus Audio, which also supplied eight new Apple Macs and Sennheiser 2000 Series wireless microphone systems. ‘We now have a system with a smaller footprint but with a large fader count, so we can access as many channels as possible on one layer,’ comments Drayton Entertainment Dead of Audio, Allan McMillan. ‘It is reliable, easy to use, has an excellent FX suite, and the sonic quality is warm and very musical.’

With seven theatres and four shows running simultaneously, the gear allocation is determined by the shows’ needs. ‘The current scenario is that the dLives are managing the three large musical productions,’ McMillan explains. ‘The other productions remain on the Allen & Heath analogue GL consoles but we aim to have a dLive in every venue in the future.’

Drayton reckons to use some of the best actors, musicians, directors and technical professionals in Canada to bring world-class production to local theatres. The first real-world test for the new dLive systems is a production of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

‘That show is like a freight train going 100 miles an hour – I’ve got a lot of vocal dynamics happening where I have three layers in the mix, and then you’ve got to include the band mix in there as well, so there’s a lot of mic groups to manage. But with dLive at the helm, it’s effortless,” McMillian says.