With management of the Leicester Haymarket Theatre transferred to the Haymarket Consortium in 2016, the venue ended a decade of disuse with a £3.6m investment from the local authority and a new vision for its future – including providing a training facility for students with production and performance related qualifications in mind.

A major consideration in its technical installation concerns the choice of systems that students will come across in their professional careers. Now refurbished, the theatre ranks among the highest spec’d theatres in the UK with Shure’s Axient Digital as the wireless microphone system of choice.

Autograph Sales & Installations provided installation, supply and consultancy services for the Haymarket project, and had originally spec’d the Shure ULX-D system, but the launch of Axient Digital proved a game changer for the venue.

The project was led by Autograph Sales & Installations Technical Sales Manager, Chris Austin: ‘Axient Digital came out at just the right time,’ he says. ‘While ULX-D would have been a great solution, Axient Digital has been designed as the premier live production RF system and was a perfect fit for Haymarket’s ambitious plans. As well as being used for shows and events in and out of the venue in its capacity as a training venue, Haymarket wants students to use equipment they will also see professionally.’

The Leicester Haymarket is one of the first UK venues to have Axient as its in-house wireless solution, brining advantages as a working venue. ‘Being an early adopter isn’t always a good thing, but despite being the first UK venue to have Axient Digital, the systems have performed faultlessly,’ Austin reports. ‘It’s a complicated system but presented in an intuitive format – it’s done everything the customer has asked of it so far without incident.’

With 18 channels in use throughout the building, the theatre is making best use of the product’s features: ‘The Haymarket has used Axient Digital on external events in challenging RF environments, and has found the monitoring and control through Wireless Workbench very useful,’ he continues. ‘Good use was also made of the ShurePlus Channels iOS app on the first show in Haymarket, letting the production No2 walk-test the system on his own while watching for interference from stage machinery being used for the first time.

‘With the coming loss of 700MHz it’s only getting harder to produce big events from a wireless spectrum perspective. A key consideration of specifying Axient Digital was its large tuning range, which removes one headache for the client when planning spectrum for an external event. Having such wide-band hardware simplifies hiring in extra channels too, as checking you’re getting the correct build range is a thing of the past.’

The Axient Digital system will be helping the new 900 seat Haymarket theatre achieve its ambitious future plans in theatre productions, e-sports tournaments, live music, awards, parties and conferences.

‘Designing world-class wireless systems that answer our customers need both for today and the future is of the utmost importance to us at Shure,’ says Tuomo Tolonen, Director, Pro Audio Group. ‘With the future of RF spectrum remaining unclear for the foreseeable future, cutting-edge venues like Haymarket require a system that is built to withstand even the most challenging RF environments. The Theatre industry brings such an important amount of cultural capital to our cities, and we’re proud to be part of bringing this social destination back to life.’