Applying it appropriately
By Pete Tidemann

A working mixer goes behind the scenes to detail a marriage of new system technologies at a Minneapolis theater

Sweeping view of the restored Pantages.

The Pantages Theater is a crown jewel of the Minneapolis theater scene. Originating in 1916 as a vaudeville house, most recently it’s been transformed from a movie theater to a majestic venue for music, dance, and theatrical and corporate events. The Pantages resides downtown, close to the larger State and Orpheum Theaters. But just because its scale is smaller doesn’t mean there was skimping with regard to a new sound reinforcement system recently installed at the venue. The system was designed by Steve Olson, who serves as the theater’s operation coordinator and sound manager.

After being given the green light to move forward by ownership, The Historic Theater Group, Olson began discussions with EVI-Telex, headquartered in nearby Burnsville, Minnesota, about support for a turnkey system solution. The project provided the opportunity to include some recent Electro-Voice (EV) and Klark Teknik (KT) technologies, joined by a Midas Heritage 1000 console at the mix position.

“The most important thing was sound quality, of course, but EVI also promised it could meet a very short turnaround time with respect to equipment delivery and our installation window,” Olson notes. “We also felt positive about the hands-on support it could provide, given its close proximity.”

I recently had the opportunity to mix a live show on this new system and also spent time with Olson talking about his design goals and the actual course the project took as it went along. In short, it’s one of the better installed systems I’ve used, both for its sonic signature as well as its control and flexibility, and it demonstrates just what some of the highly touted technology hitting the market these days can do when applied appropriately.

GETTING IT COVERED

Aesthetically striking, the Pantages Theater offers approximately 1,000 seats distributed between a main level and large, sweeping balcony that extends more than halfway into the room. Acoustically, the room has a nice signature, with carpeted aisles and padded seating helping to lessen reflections. The facing of the balcony is relatively narrow, with the smaller surface lessening the tendency for energy to “slap back” at the stage. Further, the new system has been designed to focus energy on the audience area and not off of hard wall and ceiling surfaces. The room has a relatively gentle fan shape, with seating on both levels gradually widening out from the stage.

Furman conditioning, TC and Lexicon effects and more.

One important facet in the control equation is the implementation of a line array loudspeaker system to supply the majority of coverage throughout the room. The arrays, flown to the left and right of the stage proscenium, are each made up of 13 EV Xlc127 compact line array modules and provide a stereo image. These loudspeakers, recently introduced by EV, take the X-Line concept to a smaller, lighter package made for medium-throw applications such as this one.

Each Xlc127 includes a single 12-inch cone woofer, dual 6.5-inch mid-frequency cones, and dual 90- by 30-degree horns, each with two-inchexit compression drivers. If you were to take a look inside the horn flare, you’d see slots with foam inserts that time-align high-frequency energy.

“We have a limited amount of space to the left and right of the proscenium opening, so there were limited loudspeaker options to choose from that would suit our unique space and sightline issues,” Olson told me as we looked at the arrays. It also seemed to me that 13 loudspeaker boxes per array might be a bit of overkill to achieve appropriate coverage and volume in the space, but he put this into perspective by showing me the coverage as defined in the array software.

The structure, location and flying angles of the arrays were all determined with assistance from Xlc Line Array Prediction Software (LAPS).

Steve Olson (front) and Pete Tidemann take time out to pose at the control position.

Using the software to try a variety of options, the design team could see that the approach taken here would result in providing even full-bandwidth coverage to the most seats. These types of software programs, offered now by several manufacturers, represent another advancement that helps optimize a system within a space, be it portable or fixed. Like all tools of this sort, it’s not the Holy Grail, but when used properly, it does add a level of understanding to the process. The backbone of most of these programs is spreadsheet formulas that calculate coverage of a given space, array angle parameters and the footprint/ weight of the array.

The user enters these parameters and then can “tweak” aspects such as array height, location and makeup to arrive at a predicted “optimum” direction.

LOCATION, LOCATION…

Some venues of this type elect to use a ground-stack main PA to cover the main floor, with a mono center cluster flown above the proscenium to cover the balcony. Here, however, the sound team determined early on that it wanted a stereo image for the balcony, and, regardless, a prosceniumtop cluster would be shielded by a sculpture flown from the ceiling, compromising coverage. Also, sufficient stage space was lacking for a groundstack approach.

By implementing the line array approach, coverage could be supplied to most of the main floor while also completely blanketing the steeply raked balcony, all the way to the last seating row. Further, the control presented by the arrays meant that coverage could be fairly precisely halted at this point, preventing energy from slapping off the rear wall back into the house.

The shadowed rear seats under the balcony receive reinforcement from five EV Xi-1082 compact two-way loudspeakers mounted horizontally under the balcony, which are timedelayed in reference to the mains. Four more of these loudspeakers are also mounted to the stage lip walls, again supplying appropriately delayed mid/high reinforcement to seats on the extreme front/side of the stage.

I walked the room extensively during soundcheck prior to mixing the show and found that coverage is indeed solid throughout the room, with the delay loudspeakers in tight synchronization with the arrays. Overall, from full bandwidth and coverage perspectives, I couldn’t find a bad seat in the house.

Eight Xlc118 18-inch-loaded subwoofers can be stacked in a four-overfour configuration on the floor to each side of the stage. Olson told me that the units are so efficient that only half are needed to supply commensurate low-frequency impact for the majority of performances. The stage monitoring situation will be addressed at a later date, but four EV Xw15 wedges were added, and they run actively for two onstage mixes. The rest of the monitoring needs are met with rental components on an as-needed basis.

OUTBOARD ELIMINATION

EV P1200RL and P3000RL power amplifiers, rack-mounted backstage, drive all loudspeakers, and, in a unique twist, also now provide all necessary processing. In a very recent development, the amplifiers offer onboard DSP, eliminating the need for outboard devices.

P Series amps doing their job and staying out of the way backstage.

I had seen this demonstrated at 2002 AES in Los Angeles, and it was immediately clear that it’s a very appealing option. Instead of one or two processors relied upon to handle an entire PA, now there’s DSP control of every single amp channel. This is great for situations where you might want to process individual loudspeakers differently within the same array. In addition, all amplifiers can be networked and controlled remotely via PC, most usually front-of-house, so you can adjust in real-time during a show, and even swap out a failed amp channel. Each DSP channel offers equalization, delay, crossover, dynamic control (compression and limiting) and both amp and speaker monitoring. Five parametric EQ filters per channel are available.

The real-time control and monitoring is even cooler, allowing the engineer or tech to see input/output metering, amp temperature, limiting, protection, polarity, speaker impedance monitoring, gain control and muting/solo functions. And, after a show is over, you can run diagnostics on the amps and speakers to determine if anything has blown up along the way. When running the test program, threshold parameters can be established for the high- and low- impedance values of the speakers - if one is out of range, it will be indicated during the diagnostic tests.

FRONT AND CENTER

The mix position, located centrally behind the balcony, is amazingly clean and organized, centered upon the 48-channel Midas Heritage 1000 console chosen by Olson for its sonic quality. The console works in tandem with a single rack of processing and source devices. Outputs of the console are routed to main left/right, underbalcony, front fill and monitors. Another feed is supplied to dressing rooms, and yet another is dedicated to the hearing-impaired system.

A Klark Teknik DN1248 Plus Active Signal Splitter acts as an extension of the console, feeding it incoming stage audio signals. Olson chose the active snake to minimize interference and induction from separate AC sources that can happen when mic preamps reside at the stage.

Instead of sending the relatively weak signal of a mic level source to the console, the DN1248 Plus converts the signal to line level before output. When a monitor console or record truck is used, the splitter’s transformers isolate the signal ground for each console, helping prevent ground loop hums. Whirlwind multi-core MASS connector systems provide the interconnection between the active snake box to the console as well as the insert whips at FOH.

New Klark Teknik DN9340 Helix digital equalizers are the other piece of the processing set. The Helix units provide parametric and graphic EQ from one unit, including selections from analog KT products like the DN360 and DN27. Combining EQ and delay, the DN9340 features system time alignment up to one second and a dynamic EQ DSP function called T-DEQ, or threshold dependent equalization.

TEST DRIVING

When setting up the system for the first time, I gave T-DEQ a try, even though I hadn’t planned on using it during my event. Basically, you set up dynamic thresholds above and below the desired frequency range to define the area in the EQ that you want dynamically processed. When I intentionally turned the PA up to a point where the high end was blasting the front rows, the EQ smoothly corrected the harshness until I came back down into range again.

It’s easy to see it working with input and output metering as well as the T-DEQ meters for the four filters right on the front panel. This is not frequency dependent compression, but rather dynamic EQ to boost low frequencies at lower sound pressure levels or shape high frequencies at loud levels.

Via an RS-232 link, the Helix EQs can also be used to provide an auto solo function on Heritage series consoles. Instead of controlling the EQs from one DN9340 master unit, this enables you to assign different input or output solos on the Heritage (or Midas Legend) consoles to activate the EQ you want to adjust. Twelve KT DN504 Plus compressors and eight DN514 Plus noise gates are available for insert on any channel in the desk.

A Lexicon PCM91 also found its way into the rack to supply reverbs and effects, joined by a TC Electronic 2290 digital delay and TC M3000 digital effects processor. The latter offers dual DSP engines that can operate each input independently, supplying reverbs or effects for different applications.

FILLING IT OUT

The "J" of one of the new arrays.

EV RE-1 UHF frequency-agile wireless microphone systems include frequency scanners that search for clear channels – a feature that proves to be very helpful in a downtown RF environment. All eight wireless systems offer a choice of handheld or bodypack transmitters. Countryman E6 microphones are used with the bodypacks, selected for their compactness. “Even with the omnidirectional capsule on the E6, we still have plenty of gain-before-feedback using the system we have installed,” Olson points out. “This is a testament to the control of the house system, which is keeping energy off the stage, and the rejection characteristics of the microphones.” As I wrapped up my gig, bid Olson a good evening and headed out for home on a cold Minneapolis night, a few thoughts turned over in my head. First, a lot of attention in this industry focuses on technology, sometimes to the exclusion of the human aspect of the equation. But it seemed to me that while this system included a lot of newer innovations, they served to enhance my work, rather than get in the way of it.

And then there’s the old K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) acronym. A lot of effort went into putting these tools together, and that wasn’t a simple process. But at the same time, the outcome in terms of usability and system results remains totally true to the acronym.

And finally, it sure did sound pretty darn good in that room.

Pete Tidemann is a working mixer and head of Linear Velocity, based in Minneapolis. He can be reached at hans@linearvelocity.com.