Burdekin Theatre upgrades with Clair Brothers
- Details
The theatre features a 473-seat auditorium with proscenium arch and orchestra pit, supported by a professional technical staff. When it came time to upgrade its sound system, Clair Brothers topped the list after a competitive review of major loudspeaker brands.
David Luscombe, theatre technician, at Burdekin Theatre, explains: “As time went on, I knew our old system was reaching the end of its life expectancy. It just wasn’t keeping up with our ever-rising standards. I saw it as an opportunity to upgrade, so I took a listen to several top brands before I got the opportunity to experience an in-person demo with Wayne Grosser, the Clair Brothers’ audio and design consultant here in Australia. After hearing the system Wayne proposed, I was sold.”
The proposed configuration was an LCR system which would give the venue and its engineers total flexibility and headroom, while using Dante to drive the system from their Allen & Heath iLive console. Grosser says: “My design approach was to use the same speaker elements in all three main hangs horizontally arrayed, which fitted within the theatre’s proscenium.
“The new system’s top kiT12s on each hang are 60 x 40 degrees and the bottom kiT12s were 90 x 40 degrees. Each kiT12 is in bi-amp mode and has its own two-amp channels and Lake processing with a total of 12 1000w @ 8ohms amplifier channels for the six kiT12s (three CB-D 40:4L amps). This allows David and his team of engineers to trim or shade the bottom kiT12s if necessary, for the orchestra pit or certain productions that perform on the extended downstage area.
“Two kiT-Subs placed on either side of the stage provide even sub coverage throughout the seating area powered by a CB-D 80:4L 4 x 2000W @ 8Ohms. Four 5CX front fills work perfectly to provide vocal image to the front VIP seating rows.”
Luscombe elaborates: “Having the exact same components in the LCR hang has made a significant improvement to the tonality and intelligibility in the room. And having front fill with the same voicing as the main hangs was a genius decision, really. When you hear the results, you realize why I knew this was the only way to go. Then, when you add in the four fantastic sounding Clair Brothers CB-D40:4L amps, you get headroom for days. What more can I say?”
(Jim Evans)
