Edwards demoed a few different systems provided by several sound companies bidding for a specific youth themed musical tour, but the size specifications coming from the production design team were limiting, leaving fewer options to contend for the tour.
This Musical was originally an American TV Movie released in 2006, and quickly became this family channel's most successful movie with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US. The film's soundtrack was the best-selling album of 2006, and has since morphed into movie sequels, books, concert tours, musical tours, video games and a karaoke style sing along show. The film has won an Emmy, a Billboard award as well as a Teen Choice Award.
Unbeknown to Duncan, Adamson's yet unreleased Metrix system fit the bill. He was fairly familiar with Adamson's products having previously worked with the Y-Axis and SpekTrix Series at the South East Christian Church installation. This time around, Edwards was looking for a compact line array, and knew that he liked the sound of the SpekTrix system. Concurrently Brock Adamson had been working on the Ultra Compact Line Array Series, with akin design to the SpekTrix Series, and suggested Duncan to fly up to Canada to hear the prototypes. Impressed with the power and clarity of this little box; Edwards recommended Masque Sound to buy the system, in order to get it on the National Tour.
During pre-production two custom towers were specifically built by PRG Scenic for the main L and R systems, using three story blocks with the top and bottom sections holding eight stacked 5 degree Metrix enclosures, with the middle section containing three SpekTrix subs, as the Metrix Sub was still in its infancy stage of development. In Addition to the towers, a flown centre cluster of single Spektrix enclosure with five SpekTrix waves was used, and another four SpekTrix Wave boxes were employed as lip-fills on the stage.
(Jim Evans)
