The theatre had booked two performances which were atypical for the venue: Tom Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll, which features a live a rock group, and the musical A Well Paid Walk. The sound department at the theatre felt the existing 13 year old theatre console wasn't up to the productions, especially as the sound control had to be brought front of house rather than in a glassed-in sound cabin.
Various console brands were brought to the National Theatre for evaluation by four of the house engineers. After just a few minutes they had agreed unanimously on the Midas. "We simply put the same signal through the different consoles, and there was such a difference in the quality of sound that we immediately decided to choose Midas," says the National Theatre's chief sound engineer Emil Bohácek.
"We also had to take into consideration the console's size because the bigger it was, the more seats it would occupy and the theatre would lose more money. We simply needed a desk with 32 inputs with a reasonable price and size and mainly with good sound. Verona perfectly fulfilled all of these requirements."
(Jim Evans)
