According to Capitol Theatre technician Brian Anderson, the new system design is comprised of 10 Kara enclosures per side, each complemented by an additional hang of six SB15m subs creating an ultra-compact and lightweight flown three-way system. The Kara arrays are covering both balcony and orchestra level seating areas thus eliminating the need for under-balcony speakers. Following a directive from the venue's primary benefactor that no speakers be visible, arrays are housed in towering boxed frames on the far sides of the stage and hidden behind acoustically transparent scrims.
For foldback, a dozen coaxial 12XT wedges can be positioned onstage as needed, with four more 12XT on hand for deck-fill use. A front-fill system of six tiny 5XT is inset into the front of the stage lip, while two SB28 subs per side are located below to supply augmented low-frequency impact. A combined total of 11 LA8 amplified controllers monitor, process and drive both the FOH and monitoring systems. Clearwing Productions of Milwaukee supplied all of the gear, which was installed by the theatre's own seasoned audio production team.
"The Capitol Theater hosts nearly 250 performances a year, and those productions span quite a variety - everything from theatre to rock, classical and opera concerts - so we needed a system that could be very versatile," Anderson describes. "After inviting five of what we considered to be the most production rider-friendly manufacturers to individually come in and demo their most appropriate systems here in the space, we unanimously chose to install Kara."
(Jim Evans)
