New Sound at The Apollo
One of the most storied performance venues in the world revitalizes with an emphasis on systems technology
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DEAR FRIENDS AND PATRONS: The opening of the 125th Street Apollo Theatre (sic) next Friday
night will mark a revolutionary step in the presentation of stage
shows. ...The phrase “the finest theater in Harlem”
can be aptly applied to this redecorated and refurbished temple
of amusement. ...High-fidelity RCA sound equipment, the same as
used by Radio City Music Hall, and an innovation in public address
systems, has been installed, and we feel certain that the 125th
Street Apollo Theater will be an entertainment edifice that Harlem
will take pride in showing off to neighborhood communities.
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The evening’s entertainment featured “a colored revue” called Jazz a la Carte featuring Ralph Cooper Sr., Benny Carter and his Orchestra and “16 Gorgeous Hot Steppers.” The Apollo Theater, with a newly installed RCA public address system, was open for business.
Nearly 70 years later, The Apollo Theater has once again undergone a complete upgrade of its sound system, and this time around, the only RCA components are the phono jacks on the CD and cassette players. Approaching its 100-year benchmark, the 1,400-seat Apollo is in the midst of a total restoration process to replenish one of Harlem’s last cultural and artistic jewels to its former grandeur.
Following approval by The Apollo Theater Foundation, a multi-phase renovation/
restoration process began in January 2002. But prior, several experienced
theatrical professionals joined The Apollo staff to make key contributions
to this process.
David Rodriguez was recruited as the theater’s executive director,
offering plenty of specific experience in the management of major venue
renovations and systems upgrades. He joined The Apollo administration
fresh from completing renovations at several notable theaters, including
the John Harms Center for the Arts in Englewood, New Jersey, and Carnegie
Hall in New York City.
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Veteran production manager and lighting
designer Steve Jones took over the keyrole of technical director
following 17 years as production manager of Bellefonte Enterprises.
“In my many years of experience touring around the world,
I saw a lot of venues with decent enough equipment, but it didn’t
mesh with the dynamics of the space,” he explains. “It
worked but did little to enhance the production and performance
values. That’s certainly not what we wanted here at The Apollo,
so we were dedicated in our effort to go the proper route to install
a system that addressed the particular needs of this performance
space.” |
“To their credit,” Rodriguez notes, “the board agreed with the creative and technical crew members that technical quality and usability of the space needed to take priority over other needs in this phase of the renovation. We were all on the same page.”
There was also agreement that this goal could only be achieved through
professional design and installation of new systems rather than simply
adding more equipment to the existing system. Another important factor
was the desire for consistency and quality for every act, moving away
from individual sound (and lighting) systems being brought in for a given
show. “That’s a particularly difficult way to operate,”
Jones points out, “especially in a historic house like The Apollo.”
Jaffe Holden Acoustics of Norwalk, Connecticut, working with the production
team, provided the sound system design in addition to researching and
developing the bid specifications for the new systems. The equipment supply
contract was awarded to SPL
Integrated Solutions, with the company’s New York-based operation
(located in Mt. Vernon, New York) also supervising installation efforts
by the in-house crew.
Rodriguez and his staff made industrious use of the performance records
of the theater’s recent past, studying the technical riders of every
performer who has appeared at the theater over the past five years. This
information served as a systems specification cornerstone.
Meanwhile, Jaffe Holden Acoustics and SPL furthered the information gathering
process by conducting personal interviews with Apollo personnel, holding
department meetings and doing many on-site inspections of the facility.
Key players in the process included head of audio Mike Jenkins, a 12-year
veteran of The Apollo, as well as Danielle Peake, who has served for almost
a decade as a staff audio technician.
RELIABLE AND WICKED LOUD
The Apollo’s new house and monitor sound system designs were driven
by the need to accommodate a thoroughly diverse roster of acts, ranging
from modern hip-hop to subtle jazz, comedians to amateur nights, theatrical
productions and everything in between. Another significant aspect is the
large number of television shows filmed/taped at The Apollo, requiring
any system solution to work around the need for clean camera sightlines.
“Acoustically the space is fairly dead, which lends itself well
to an amplified audio program because there’s not a lot of added
impact from bounce and spill of audio energy,” adds David W Robb,
a principal of Jaffe Holden Acoustics. A testament to its origins as a
vaudeville venue, the room is intimate, with its 1,400 seats spread among
a main floor topped by dual balconies that begin their upward rake just
25 - 30 feet from the stage. Two levels of private boxes reside directly
next to each side of the stage.
The loudspeaker design in this first phase will be somewhat modified
during phase two of the renovation process, when infrastructure and architectural
issues will be addressed more fully. For example, adequate load-ready
loudspeaker rigging points will be implemented. For now, however, the
sound team devised a flexible approach that allows loudspeakers to be
placed where needed to deliver adequate coverage for any given application.
This, in turn, partly influenced the decision that modeling of the space
was not needed for this phase of the project. Jaffe Holden Acoustics’
Sam Brandt, who served as project manager, notes, “A venue like
this is pretty straightforward, because there are only certain places
loudspeakers can be located. So you take this fact, combine it with the
knowledge of hundreds of theaters we’ve worked with in the past,
and make educated decisions as to what goes where, why and for optimum
performance.”
And then there are the brass tacks. A straightforward production directive
came from years of dealing with a highly unreliable sound system. “You
can put fancy language to it, but at some level it comes down to this:
make it absolutely reliable, and make it wicked loud,” Robb says.
This in turn influences component selection, with SPL’s Felix Robinson
indicating that it did play a role in the decision to go with Crest
amplification to drive all loudspeakers.
UNIQUE COVERAGE CHALLENGES
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To fly new full-range loudspeakers
providing coverage to the top balcony, an existing box truss fit
the bill, following evaluation by a structural engineer to insure
that it could indeed safely support the additional weight. Full-range
Eastern Acoustic Works
(EAW) KF750 concert loudspeakers were selected, flown in tight-packed
pairs at each end of the truss. |
The lower balcony presents unique coverage challenges, with a relatively
small opening and seats that extend numerous rows to the back wall. Delay
loudspeakers are intended as a future solution, but for now, single KF750
loudspeakers were placed in the private boxes to each side of the stage,
with raked platforms devised to supply the precise angle to insure coverage
focused on the balcony seats while avoiding, as much as possible, any
“slap” off the balcony facing.
“You don’t necessarily want loudspeakers occupying these private
box positions, but the reality is that currently these are the best possible
positions to get the coverage those balcony seats deserve,” Robb
says. “Certainly this situation can be amended in the second phase,
but every project involves tradeoffs, and this is one the production team
determined acceptable.”
More flexibility was engineered into the loudspeaker strategy for covering
main floor seating. Custom loudspeaker stands attached to the stage floor
and wall hold up to three KF750 loudspeakers per side. The stands allow
these loudspeakers to be moved up and down, and side to side, as needed
for a given application. And, EAW JF80 compact loudspeakers are arranged
along the front lip of the stage to bolster mid-high coverage to the first
few seating rows.
“The loudspeaker situation, as currently constructed, meets the
most important priority - delivering quality sound to every seat,”
Brandt says. “Some of the aesthetic and location aspects can be
addressed later if need be, but sound must come first, then flexibility,
then meeting the numerous other design requirements. In a fixed space,
particularly one as old as this, there are going to be compromises - it’s
a matter of making the right choices.”
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FILLING IT OUT |
Using road cases allowed SPL to pre-configure the racks off site; then, they were very quickly transferred to the venue and plugged into the system, dramatically saving system downtime during installation.
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System and loudspeaker processing is
handled by a collection of XTA
DP Series digital signal processors providing equalization, delay
and crossover. BSS
Soundweb units handle some subsidiary processing and routing, such
as interface with backstage systems. Brandt took advantage of a
PRAM wireless interface during his system tuning process. The PRAM
unit allowed him to utilize his laptop computer to change processor
settings without being constrained by a cable link between the two.
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A wide selection of microphones are available, including models from
Neumann, Sennheiser,
AKG, EV
and Shure. The new
EAW SM stage monitors are joined by wireless in-ear monitoring systems.
Following implementation of the new system, The Apollo Theater has upped
its schedule to host as many as 12 performances in a given week. To this
point, all work has been met with satisfaction of the house production
crew as well as visiting engineers and artists.
“We are now one of the few venues in NYC to have everything in-house.
Our sound and lighting systems are complete and second-to-none,”
says Jones. “A touring band can show up and leave everything in
the truck, which has been happening more and more as the word gets out.
At most, they will bring in their console, if they have specific automation
programming; otherwise, they use our system exclusively and without compromise.”
Apollo Technician Peake enthusiastically summarizes, “The upgrade
has heightened expectations and has brought a lot of excitement to The
Apollo Theater on both sides of the stage. The technical crew loves the
new equipment, and overall client satisfaction has gone way up. It’s
fun to see some of the performers I’ve worked with over the years,
and prior to the upgrade, show up and be blown away by what they see and
hear. The excitement is contagious!”
Rich Williams is a freelance journalist serving various entertainment
technology manufacturing industries, including audio, video, broadcast,
and multimedia systems integration. Contact him at avwriter@mindspring.com.