52 l April 2014
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installationfeature OUT BOARD TIMAX
TO PURISTS, putting the words of the Bard through any kind of technology borders on heresy but the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is now using a system that allows the sound of an actor’s voice to match his or her position onstage. The Courtyard Theatre at the RSC’s main base in Stratford (above) was built as a temporary venue while the main Royal Shakespeare auditorium and Swan Theatre underwent extensive “remodelling”. They re-opened in 2010 and the Courtyard has continued as an overflow venue during festival time. Last year a 48x48 Out Board TiMax2 Sound Hub matrix, with MADI capability, was installed there to fulfil a number of
requirements: moving MADI signals into and out of the theatre’s DiGiCo SD9 front of house desk; providing distribution to its “three-dimensional delay system”; and acting as a delay- matrix processor for voice localisation and band imaging. This last requirement was the original concept behind TiMax (standing for time and matrix), which developed out of Out Board director Robin Whittaker’s work with surround sound and delays in the early 1990s. The Courtyard system was expanded last month with the addition of a further 16-channels of audio (now giving 64) and new MADI capability to also bring that up to 64-channels.
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Chris Jordan
from mixing consoles – the DiGiCo SD7 is a major part of Blitz’s stock – to iPads and other tablets for controlling some parts of the system. Line arrays, or at least line array elements, Jordan agrees, are now in widespread use but argues that older technologies are not yet fully out of the picture. “Shows in the West End are still using point source systems,” he says. “We did Merrily We Roll Along with a simple point source system and that has been nominated for an Olivier Best Sound Design Award [sound designer Gareth Owen], so they’re not dead yet.” A more pressing issue, Jordan
adds, is the amount of noise pollution in productions coming from moving lights and other mechanical and electrical stage hardware. “The background level of noise in some shows is quite offensive,” he observes. Audio sources are increasing in auditoria; surround sound is finding its way into theatre more
regularly as the influence of cinema makes itself felt on the older artistic discipline.
FAR FROM THE MADDEN CROWD Sound designer Rory Madden says the need for surround is judged on a production by production basis. “It can play a great part in an effect that can be controlled,” he explains. “You can draw the stage out to the audience and it’s nice to have the control of where you put the sound in the room.” Madden continues that digital consoles and control systems are “evolving day by day and are incredibly powerful”, which is “very exciting” in terms of what can be achieved. “Their size, relative to what we make them do, is astonishing, compared with ten years ago. Digital consoles include all the processing internally for most of the needs of reverb, dynamics and EQ. Snapshot scene recall and the ability to trigger external
playback systems are all benefits of going digital.” On the subject of the quiet
stage, Madden says in-ear monitoring helps keep the levels down, as well as allowing the performers to “look in to their art”. Miniature wireless mics and headsets have also had a major impact on how theatre shows are designed and produced. DPA has been a leading choice for this and is now considering taking that experience and combining it with IEMs to produce something that can do two jobs in a single package. Mikkel Nymand, product
manager and tonmeister with DPA, says there is general annoyance among performers and technicians in having to accommodate two wireless belt packs, one for the mic, the other for IEM. “We are a microphone manufacturer, we don’t do wireless systems,” he says, “but one of the ideas we have is to see if we can combine some IEM capability with headsets. But we’re not there yet.”
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