The theatre presents eight major productions each year and draws heavily on local talent including cast, crew and technical support. A recent major upgrade of the venue's audio system saw a Yamaha CL5 console installed after an in-depth evaluation.
Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems (PAS) supplied three different consoles for the evaluation, with the CL5 the clear winner, thanks to its state of the art processing power and control, ease of use and onboard Dante networking. Also supplied were a pair of Yamaha Rio3224-D i/o units, one Ri8 input and two Ro8 output units, plus four network switchers.
"As our productions have been becoming technically more demanding, the need for further flexibility in our sound system was becoming apparent," says Royal Court head of sound Kate Harvey. "We looked at a variety of consoles and the CL5 was the obvious choice, especially with the Dante networking. It fits our needs perfectly and my familiarity with Yamaha desks also helped, as we only have very short crossover periods in between shows. It's great to have a console in the theatre that delivers the sound quality our productions deserve."
The Dante networking featured onboard the CL5 and other Yamaha digital consoles allows several input / output rack units to be located according to the demands of the production - an example at the Royal Court might be a Rio3224-D, another for the radio racks at side of stage, an Ro8 in the amplifier room, an Ri8 at front of house, alongside another Ro8 for spare outputs, all conveniently connected via standard Cat 6 cable. The four network switches supplied by PAS, two at FOH and two on stage plus two runs of Cat 6 cabling also provide full network redundancy.
(Jim Evans)
