Standing proudly in the heart of downtown St. Louis is the magnificent Stifel Theatre. Built in 1934, this stunning example of Art Deco / Beaux Arts architecture originally opened as the “Municipal Opera House,” a name it held for nine years before being re-christened as the “Kiel Opera House” in 1943 (to honor St. Louis Mayor Henry Kiel) and then briefly — after a 14-month, $79-million renovation — reopening as the “Peabody Opera House” from 2010 to 2018. Eventually, the naming rights were sold to the Stifel Financial Corp. — and thus the current “Stifel Theatre” moniker.
The System
Recently, the Stifel Theatre has made significant improvements to the guest experience, by including a d&b audiotechnik KSL line array system, installed by Spectrum Sound, of Nashville, TN.
d&b audiotechnik’s dual-10” line KSL array was introduced to the world as the “younger sibling” to the company’s flagship GSL system, which set the stage for the evolutionary path that KSL would inherit as part of the SL Series, just in a smaller package. The family shares broadband directivity and extended low-frequency response throughout the lineup. Technologies such as d&b ArrayProcessing have also provided an option for sonic consistency, delivering tonal balance and even level distribution over the entire coverage area, front-to-back.
Ken DeBelius, the system integration sales manager for Spectrum, mentioned that the Stifel Theatre staff members were familiar with other d&b audiotechnik systems, mostly V-Series, as they regularly come through the space with various touring productions, making them well-acquainted with the d&b sonic footprint. “They had not actually heard KSL, but based on Spectrum’s recommendation, they went with this premium solution that will serve their needs for decades,” DeBelius notes.
“Our number priority as a company is to provide the best experience possible for both performers and guests who visit our theatre,” says Adrian Silverstein, Stifel Theatre’s assistant general manager. “Spectrum, along with Tim Kostal, the head of our audio department, understood those needs and through both of their expertise, made it easy to invest in a state-of-the-art d&b audiotechnik P.A. that addresses our need to adapt to the varied productions we host. Spectrum’s willingness to provide their touring amp rack during a chip shortage due to supply issues is just an example of how they will go above and beyond for their clients.”
The staff at Stifel Theatre expressed the desire to have an auxiliary center full-range cluster that could be used both with the main Left/Right KSL arrays — in an LCR arrangement, or alone for simpler talking head-style shows. “For this,” DeBelius says, “we elected to use the d&b A Series Augmented Array product. These are suspended directly below the center flown subwoofer array using a custom designed/fabricated adapter from the d&b audiotechnik custom shop. Despite their small footprint, they keep up with the main KSL arrays remarkably well.”
d&b audiotechnik’s A-Series combines the ease of point-source clusters with the level and frequency distribution of line arrays, delivering signature d&b sonic quality in an augmented format. It can be deployed vertically or horizontally, and its coverage is adjustable to meet its requirements.
d&b ArrayProcessing was implemented in this project, and DeBelius said he rarely installs any d&b systems without ArrayProcessing. “The benefits in smoothing the tonal response across the seating planes are totally worth the extra amplifier channels needed. It also greatly assisted providing good coverage into the balcony without excessive level loss, right up to the very top of the high balcony seating without having to resort to separate upper balcony delay fills.”
The KSL configuration consists of eight 80° dispersion KSL8, 16 120° dispersion KSL12, four KSL-SUBs (in a center, flown subwoofer array), four SL-GSUBs (portable ground subs for the deck, set two per side), 18 40D amplifiers, two D80 amps, eight 44S loudspeakers for front fills, three DS10 Dante network bridges, four Yi7P point-source loudspeakers employed as under balcony delay fills, one AL60 and three AL90 A-Series speakers along with two M6 wedge monitors.
Challenges and Solutions
“All venues have their own set of unique challenges when it comes to designing and implementing house P.A.,” says Spectrum’s DeBelius. “The Stifel Theatre, while beautiful aesthetically, had some typical acoustical challenges with some significant hard reflections that could be exacerbated by amplified P.A. This was one of the reasons why we chose the d&b audiotechnik KSL Series for this space; the very controlled polar directivity of KSL minimized the amount of wasted energy that typically excites the room in bad ways with ordinary loudspeaker systems. During the initial deployment of the rig, everyone was instantly amazed at how well it sounded right out of the gate without even doing much in the way of system tuning. It simply sounded great from the start.”
Stifel Theatre
- Capacity: 3,100
- Key Components: d&b audiotechnik KSL system
- Integrator: Spectrum Sound
For more info, visit the Stifel Theatre at www.stifeltheatre.com.
