"We designed the system installation in house," explained production manager Kevin 'Kenny' Taylor. "We have three venues here, the Pavillion Theatre, Corn Exchange, and the Dome concert hall; and effectively we're a d&b audiotechnik house having our own selection of C4s, C7s and some MAX cabinets. For the Foyer the d&b E-Series looked ideal and so it has proved."
Occupying the Concert Hall frontage, the foyer bar is a wide but shallow room, 25m across, 10m deep, with a 12m ceiling height. "The roof is glass, hence the light airy feel," said Taylor, "and has quite a bouncy feel audio wise. My house sound engineers Jeremy Noble and Nick Pitcher wanted the system to keep as close as possible to the natural sound of the room.
"Between the three of us we came up with a pair of E12s flown above the stage, a small platform two metres by six at one end, with E6s paired along the walls at 6m intervals for delay. That enables us to keep the levels down yet having the system clearly audible at all points in the room. Since the festival opened we've received nothing but praise for the sound."
The system was supplied by Entec Sound and Light, with audio sales manager Peter Codron handling the project. "The Dome installed the system themselves, so the job was straightforward for us except for one important criteria; they wanted all the loudspeakers to be colour matched to the white interior of the room, and the cabling and fixings."
"Entec and d&b did a great job and the service has been impeccable," said Taylor. "We've already used the room for acoustic acts, DJ performances by elements of the Asian Dub Foundation, and a choir. There's no limitation to what we can do; for a room that can comfortably hold four hundred people it's a delight."
(Jim Evans)
