"It's a nice speaker for listening to music," he commented, "and its fairly wide horizontal dispersion is ideal for a system that doesn't contain huge arrays." The four JF590s are configured as two stereo pairs and are supplemented by the same number of SB330 single 18" subwoofers, feeding the stalls and balcony areas respectively. The cabinets are flown or ground-stacked as required, displaying the versatility of the JF Series. The JF260z is a recent addition to Stage Electrics' inventory, and Beckley took the opportunity of specifying nine of the compact, bi-amplified enclosures to achieve even vocal coverage for the show's 21-strong cast.
With its new constant-directivity horn and carefully-chosen crossover point, the JF260z coped effortlessly with the variety of differently-shaped theatres on the 33-week tour. Low-level front fill was provided by the ultra-compact JF60, of which four were used, and the cast themselves were treated to the EAW experience, courtesy of a quartet of JF100e loudspeakers, which were flown from onstage lighting trusses to provide orchestral and vocal foldback.
Glenn Beckley commented on the success of the tour: "This production has done an incredible amount of business and the original writers have even been over from the USA to see why it's been such a great success. From a sound point of view, we've been able to keep the dialogue sounding nice and natural, but we’ve opened up the dynamics between quiet dialogue and nicely reinforced music. Touring on a weekly basis can take its toll on equipment, but the EAW boxes are built like brick outhouses, and they just keep on working. The support from Mackie in the UK is superb, so we've ended up with a very well-engineered speaker system that sounds good and forms an important part of our touring theatre package."
(Lee Baldock)
