Established in 1955 in Nova Gorica, Slovensko Narodno Gledalisce (the Slovenian National Theatre, or SNG) is a venue which stages a wide range of productions, from light comedies to high drama, by both Slovenian and foreign writers.
Although its existing Yamaha PM5D and DM1000 consoles and Outline Audio PA system are working reliably, the SNG technical team had another analogue console which needed replacing. In doing so, they wanted to replace it with one which could handle all of the theatre's varied requirements and work seamlessly with the other equipment.
"The console had to perform all the tasks that a theatre production at the highest level demands," says Ales Stefancic of Ljubljana-based Audio Pro, who were asked to supply and install the new desk.
"These include working with scenes, adding special effects via internal effects units, enabling scene transitions, recall safe options and - most of all - it had to be easy to operate for any visiting engineers who had been working with analogue consoles for most of their careers."
The answer to all the requirements was a Yamaha M7CL-32, which is being adopted in many theatres at both regional and national levels throughout Europe because of its flexibility and ease of use.
"Yamaha consoles are very well known among sound engineers and demand very little time for the education of technical staff, due to the straightforward user interface," says Stefancic. "It meant that staff could use the M7CL very quickly and easily, with no interruption to the theatre's busy schedule. The M7CL offered everything that the project demanded plus, of course, Yamaha consoles have been proven time and again to be extremely reliable. The new console is in use on a daily basis and the theatre staff are extremely happy with it."
(Jim Evans)
