LONDON — The Underglobe, as the name suggests, is situated in the depths of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Autograph Sales and sound designer Sarah Weltman recently updated its sound with Meyer Sound speakers and Allen & Heath digital mixing products, including the new iLive-T Series.
The Globe was rebuilt and completed in 1997 through the work of actor and director, Sam Wanamaker. The Underglobe is host to the Globe Exhibition and the Globe’s corporate and educational events.
Having collaborated before on the refit of the Young Vic Theatre in Waterloo, the Globe’s technical manager, Paul Russell, asked Weltman to design a system capable of serving the needs of any event that the Underglobe might host.
Autograph and Weltman worked and refined the system to optimize the sound in reverberant and large space.
“Flexibility, versatility and speech intelligibility were the key aims of the system, whilst keeping control and operation simple to enable a non-technical end user to walk up, switch on the system and play a CD, or perform and make announcements using radio mics,” said Weltman.
The iLive-T mixing system is expected to serve the expanding control needs of theatrical productions, musicians, bands and other events at the venue.
Meyer Sound self-powered products, including several UPJ-1Ps, UP-Juniors, USW-1Ps and UPM-1Ps, were chosen, and Meyer Sound’s MAPP highlighted coverage and levels throughout the system and helped to engineer speaker placement, delays and output levels.
The system is distributed throughout the room to give even coverage, controlled by a central Allen & Heath iDR DSP system. The iDR-8 16×16 matrix mixer and iDR-Out expander unit provide 10 inputs into the system from wall panels around the venue, and 16 outputs to the loudspeaker system. PL-4 and PL-5 wall panel controllers are fitted to give users remote, simplified control of the venue’s loudspeakers and wireless systems, and operate the system as if it were a standalone audio system.
“The iDR system allows very complex processes to be simplified and condensed into one button push, allowing end users to operate the system without needing to know what is going on in the background,” said Simeon Ludwell, design engineer for Autograph Sales.
iLive-T was chosen because of its design architecture, which features a separate stage rack and control surface connected over CAT5 cable using Allen & Heath’s proprietary ACE (Audio and Control over Ethernet) link. A series of CAT5 patching is installed into the infrastructure of the building allowing the iDR-32 MixRack and iLive-T80 Control Surface to be plugged in at many points in the venue, and that offers flexibility, multiple placements and room orientation.
“The new ACE system offers control and audio bussing on one CAT5 cable, simplifying the connection process and offering quick and efficient set up,” said Ludwell. “iLive’s vast processing capability, and the 32 inputs and 16 outputs on the iDR Rack mean large bands and theatrical productions can be realized.”
Milab, Sennheiser Radio, and Countryman lavalier microphones, and K&M stands were also provided to complement the system.
“We needed a system that would address the varied productions we manage,” said Russell. “iLive and iDR give us exceptional flexibility, yet are of a high specification to allow us to cater for all events. The PL wallplates make it simple to use for non-technical staff and clients, and the distributed audio design of iLive-T makes set up easy and quick.”
For more information, please visit www.ilive-digital.com.
