Thanks to efforts from Shuttlesound and the Riverdance crew, the show was rebuilt from scratch in just two weeks, but since then some key changes have been made to the system. Riverdance sound supervisor Barry McLeod explains: "I don't want to say that the fire did us a favour - that might be stretching the point somewhat, but it certainly made us rethink a few things. Probably the biggest change is that we are now able to fly all the subs rather than placing them under the stage, which makes a significant difference to the sound. We're using basically the same Electro-Voice X-Array system we had before, but when we replaced the subs we went for Xb's precisely so that we could fly them. Riverdance is not a rock and roll show, so we don't want overwhelming bass. Flying the subs gives us the extra depth of sound we're looking for without blasting the people nearest the stage to smithereens! We achieve a much better dispersion of the low frequencies when the subs are in the air."
The configuration used by Riverdance is based on 15 cabinets per side comprising five Xf long-throw HF units, two Xn medium-throw full-range cabinets and eight Xb subs, plus a centre cluster of two Xcb compact bass and four Xcn compact nearfield cabinets. Another change has been to substitute Rx Series for monitoring which simply weren't available when the system was first designed.
Another significant change is that the show has moved over entirely to Klark Teknik system processing with a total of 10 DN9848s in operation. There are two networked together for monitors and a further eight on a separate computer for FOH. "The DN9848s have been an absolute godsend," confirmed McLeod. "Using my pre-sets in the pre-set editor saves a huge amount of time during set-up, and editing them if I need to do so is simple."
There has also been a change in the monitor set-up, which is a complex task for Riverdance. There are nine musicians on the bandstand, all on in-ears, plus 40 dancers, all of whom have microphones attached to their shoes. The monitor desk is now a Midas Heritage 3000 in the slightly unusual configuration of a 56-channel board with a 16-channel extender with extra stereo channels. All the VCAs and mute groups are programmed into the desk. Out front there is a standard configuration 48-channel XL4 which provides the extra automation and routing capabilities required by the production.
"It's all working like clockwork now," reports McLeod. "The fire came as a huge shock to everyone, but at least we've been able to make some changes as a result that have benefited everyone, so maybe that big black cloud had a silver lining after all!"
(Ruth Rossington)
