AV Pro Inc. Upgrades Sound along with Lighting and Rigging at TSU/San Marcos' Mainstage Theatre
When Texas State University/San Marcos first opened the doors to its castle-like "Old Main" building in 1903, the 300 new students didn't have to spend much time located the structure on the university's campus. It was the only building on campus.
Fast-forward to 2011, and you can see how the university has grown: It now serves 33,000 students pursuing degrees with 97 bachelors, 89 masters and nine doctoral degree programs. And there is now a total of 225 buildings spread across 457 acres of land on the edge of Texas Hill Country.
Just as the university's overall mandate has changed over time, individual programs have also evolved, adapting their curriculum and infrastructure to better reflect student's needs and the reality of the employment market in the world at large.
A Long-Term View
While that requires a certain amount of investment regardless of the discipline in question, when it comes to the performing arts, those investments often tend to be both complex and expensive. Consequently, when Shane Smith, assistant professor and technical director for the school's Department of Theatre and Dance, began examining ways to accommodate the department's upcoming expansion into musical theatre, he wanted to ensure the changes he made would serve all the school's needs long term.
Virtually all of the productions mounted at Mainstage rely on music in some fashion, and, in addition to being a venue, the theatre serves as a classroom in which all of the department's students learn in and hone their respective crafts, and sound is a major component of that process.
To meet the university's goals comprehensively and cost effectively, Smith adopted a "two birds with one stone" approach to the overhaul of the systems inhabiting the 350-seat Mainstage Theatre: to upgrade the lighting and rigging infrastructure while simultaneously replacing the theatre's 1970s-era loudspeaker system with a variety of Tannoy V Series loudspeakers.
A Nine-Month Install
While Smith established the initial parameters of the upgrade in summer 2008, and kept a hand in the project as it progressed, the choice of Tannoy was based on the recommendation of system designer/installer AV Pro Inc. of Dallas. "My expertise is in scenery, rigging and lighting, more than sound, so to come up with the design of the sound system, I went to people I trust."
The installation took place in phases over a nine-month period ending in spring 2009, explains AV Pro VP and sales manager, Amy Jackson, with the bulk of the work undertaken during the 2008 Christmas break.
"Shane is a very talented theatre technician," Jackson says. "And when he tells you he wants something, it's black and white. He's very clear, but there's also a respect and trust factor, and he knows we're not going to tell him something's going to work if it's not."
AV Pro often specs Tannoy product for similar applications, she continues. "Not that there aren't a lot of other good speakers out there – and we're a dealer for most of them. But for a theatre program, Tannoy is one of our first choices, especially if it's a college performing arts center. They lend themselves nicely to speech, to the singing voice and to sound effects playback. Here they were my first recommendation, because I thought they were most appropriate for the way they use their space."
"If it were just a PA system, we might have chosen a different speaker," says in AV Pro president and owner, Tom Fowlston, who credits Tannoy's Dual Concentric design for "true music reproduction," and also commended the company for its customer service and support. "If you have a question or a concern, you can pick up the phone and talk to anybody, all the way up to the national sales manager."
That type of dedication is a quality that characterizes AV Pro's approach to business as well, adds Jackson. "What we tell everybody is that there's enough good product out there that any of our competitors can provide it. But theatre customers don't have a problem at three o'clock in the afternoon. They have a problem at seven, eight, nine or ten at night. What we think sets us apart is service – answering the phone 24/7 if a customer has a problem."
An Unusual Space
When AV Pro first looked at the space, Smith wasn't entirely certain what the ongoing needs of their musical theatre program would be, but he wanted the audio system to meet the program's expanding mandate as well as speak to specific challenges offered by the Mainstage Theatre itself. "Our theatre is an unusual shape. We're in a round building and the theatre is in the centre. The acoustics are a little unusual." In addition to being slightly reverberant, Smith adds, "You could definitely tell, in certain situations, that the sound was coming from a given speaker rather than from the stage." Owing to the previous system's inadequate distribution of speakers, the seating area also suffered from a number of dead spots.
"We still have some of the reel to reel decks, a couple of the amplifiers and some of the huge cabinets from the old system," Smith says, "partly because they were too big to move and partly because it's nice to say, ‘hey, this is the way it used to be'." Nostalgia aside, however, the vintage gear truly couldn't meet the challenges inherent in the space. And moving forward, Smith's intention was to provide students with an environment that reflected the way things are.
In addition, the system had to be somewhat flexible. "Our directors are trying to be a little more cutting edge to achieve a fresh telling of some stories, and often take an approach that gives our students a challenge in the technology area." Typically, that means providing ample coverage and intelligible and musical reinforcement for a diverse variety of productions – from musicals featuring up to a 15 piece band to distinctly modern takes on classical works such as the department's 2010 production of Sophocles' Electra, which incorporated wireless mics and a substantial video component blending pre-recorded sources and content from three live cameras.
The Audio Package
To achieve those goals, Smith and AV Pro settled on an audio package comprised of four Tannoy V8s, two V15s and two VS15BP subs.
The position of the Tannoy VS15 subs in particular, Smith explains, depends on the production. "We've played with them in different locations. Our stage has an extension and sometimes we put them underneath that, or we'll put them on the stage on each side, so they're equal with the end seat of the front row, one on each side." The choice is purely an aesthetic call, he adds. "From an audio standpoint, the response is good either way." Some pre-existing cabs are also kept close at hand to serve as monitors when necessary.
The V8s are mounted on the front and rear walls of the theatre, roughly even with the front and back rows. The two V15s are flown below a lighting catwalk and slightly above the proscenium opening as a center cluster and front fill. "That cluster covers the entire seating area nicely. The V8s are literally for effects, not seating coverage," Jackson says.
While acoustic treatments were recommended, only a small amount of treatment was applied. "The funding wasn't available," Smith explains. "We were doing another black box theatre (the PSH Foundation Studio Theatre) at the same time and were more interested in isolating them from each other because they are adjacent spaces."
"We had to make some adjustments to get the speakers to provide good coverage," Fowlston says, "and not interfere with lighting and anything else, but that was another thing the Tannoy's helped with; again, because of their Dual Concentric design."
Additional system elements include two Crown CTS amps to power the VS15s and V15s, three Architectural Acoustics amplifiers, Symetrix DSP, a new Clear-Com system, a Shure wireless mic package and an Allen and Heath ZED-436 console.
While the choice of console was based partially on price point, the ZED-436's USB input was also a driving factor. "Using that, the students can either connect their computers to play back effects, or record to their computer if necessary," Jackson says. "That was one of the only consoles that had that capability at one time." AV Pro also altered the placement of the console, creating a true FOH position; rather than re-use the elevated, enclosed control booth the previous board was located in.
Getting it Done
Two years on, Smith is increasingly happy with the results. "Being able to work with the equipment here that they'll be working with in other venues is giving our students a lot of experience, and so far the system has sounded really good."
"Basically, Shane didn't want to have to apologize for anything anymore," says Jackson. "He wanted it to work and to work well. They said, ‘We want to take our theatre education program and bump it up a notch.' Well, they actually bumped it up several notches in redoing all of their technical systems at the same time. They took a ‘Let's fix it' mentality and really took the education they're able to offer their students to the next level. The sound system renovation helped that. I'm very proud of what we were able to provide for them. I'm happy for them that they've got what I believe they need to do their work properly."
