Walker is working with his team from Loh Humm Audio (Chris Simpson, Mark Cornwell and Alistair Blake) to oversee the changeovers, which involve limited installation time - just Saturday to Tuesday to move between venues. The J-Type comprises two frames, each of which has its own flightcase with all related cabling contained in the rear compartment. Walker specified this to ensure maximum set-up efficiency once the frames are in place. The desk has a total of 76 modules in the two frames, incorporating 25 mono inputs, 22 stereo inputs and eight dual programmable inputs. There is a 15-module output section, of which seven of the modules are programmable, with three auxiliary master modules. All faders for the band inputs are motorized, with all the radio mics and DC masters on manual faders.
Walker commented on the sound design: "The show is slightly scaled-down from London, with a new orchestration reducing the brass and woodwind sections by four, but adding another keyboard. Other than that the production has identical requirements. The main difference in the J-Type specification is reducing the physical size wherever possible, so there are many more stereo modules now than there were in London."
The sound equipment list includes a 28-way Sennheiser 1046 system, using a mixture of SK50A and SK5012 transmitters, plus a handheld. There are a selection of microphones on the transmitters, including the MKE-2 Platinums, which have significantly improved the invisibility of the cables during certain scenes. Mike is using a dual system of Tannoy 3836 open drivers and Tannoy V300 speakers, powered by Yamaha and LabGruppen amplifiers. Sub-bass units are a mixture of Tannoys and Meyer, while the front-fill and delay speakers are all JBL Control 1s.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
