094 VENUE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA At just under 50 years old the University of California, Irvine, is one of the university’s fastest growing campuses. Nestled in the heart of Orange County, it is consistently ranked among the best universities in the country, both public and private, and is also a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The university’s drama department, which is currently chaired by Dr Gary Busby, is also known throughout the State for its excellence, particularly since its sound design program started in 2006 thanks to an injection of funding as a result of being awarded ‘Department of Excellence’ status by the university. “When it came to sound equipment, the department had pretty bare bones before 2006,” Vincent Olivieri, Associate Head of Design, Composer and Associate Professor at the university, told mondo*dr. “Suddenly, thanks to the prize money, the department had an influx of inventory and faculty, including myself, this led to graduate students who were curious about the equipment, skilled and trained in sound engineering.” The drama department covers all areas of the traditional design elements and has graduate programs in scenic, lighting, costume, and sound design engineering. There are seven theatres in total but it is the main theatre space in the Claire Trevor Theater, which has permanent equipment in place and is used for its big end of year shows. “Our main theatre seats 350 people and sees students put on big dance concerts, musicals, orchestra concerts, jazz band performances, modern dance and more,” said Vincent. “Typically the majority of the equipment in this room remains the same and will be used in different configurations depending on the performance. “Each show will have a different student sound designer assigned to it and they will work with the director to decide what else needs to happen and what equipment is needed; they will then add to the inventory should they need to. Often we’ll have loudspeakers at the side or at the back so we can surround the audience with sound.”
www.mondodr.com
Meyer Sound loudspeaker line arrays are hung left and right of the stage; each made up of eight M1D cabinets and one M1D sub on each side. There is also a pair of Meyer Sound UPQ-1P loudspeakers hung in the centre, above the stage, while an Avid Venue mixing desk sits at the back of the theatre. The university also owns a complement of d&b audiotechnik cabinets, including Q7, Q10, and QSub models, which are used as and when required, as well as a couple of Sennheiser Audiobeam directional loudspeakers, which are used for very specific performances. One of the university’s most recent investments however, has been in a DiGiCo SD9 mixing console. “We’ve had the console just over a year now,” said Vincent. “The first show we used it on was in the spring last year. We used it in one of the smaller theatres on a musical production that used a small band and saw all the performers on wireless microphones, which is used on the Shure UHF-R digital wireless system. The computer diagnostics and monitoring of the microphones is really useful because we tend to put our receivers down stage right so we can run the network and be at FOH to monitor the channels. “It was the first time the student had designed on a musical, it was also their first time using a digital console, they learnt how to use the DiGiCo desk inside and out and really mastered the programming for it. The desk has been used a number of times since and while it’s not our biggest desk the feedback we’re getting from students has been really positive. “Because of its size, it took the students a bit of time to get their heads around it. I think there was a tendency to think that it might not be as powerful; this isn’t the case at all, there is a lot of depth to the desk and every button on there does something different. One of the things DiGiCo does very well is set up the workflow in the desk so if you need to make a change in a certain parameter, by the third or fourth time you come to do it, you’re much quicker - the learning curve is a lot shorter for the SD9 mixing desk.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156