Titled Agora, the project aims to modernise the venues and help them to stage a greater range of multicultural events. In Tatabánya it has included a complete technical refit of the town's theatre, which has featured three new DiGiCo SD9 consoles - two for the venue and a third as part of a mobile audio system, which can be used at events in different locations throughout the area.
Supplied by Budapest-based Chromasound, the SD9 was chosen thanks to its mix of channels, outputs and onboard processing for the events that Tatabánya stages, plus the regular software updates issued by DiGiCo, which ensure a large degree of future-proofing.
"This is a one off project and, as there will be no chance within the next ten years to get further investment, the very best of today's technology was needed," says Chromasound's Imre Makkay. "DiGiCo continuously upgrades its consoles with many new features, which is the kind of future-proofing that was essential to Tatabánya.
"We also know that the sound quality is the same on every DiGiCo product, so whichever console was chosen, we knew we would be supplying the best equipment."
The theatre mainly hosts plays, with the audio system predominantly used for speech. But musical events are also staged, ranging from jazz trios, through world music to rock, for all of which the consoles needed to be versatile enough to handle equally well.
"Some of the local engineers already knew DiGiCo consoles, but after just one day of training even those who had no previous experience were fine," Imre continues. "We stood behind the beginners on the first shows, but to be honest we had nothing to do. The guys were instantly happy thanks to how intuitive the SD9 is to mix on and the clear overview of its control surface. The shows went really smoothly from the start.
"The theatre directors and technicians are all really happy with the consoles. Having three of the same type has made things easier, so it doesn't matter if they are working in the theatre or on the mobile system."
(Jim Evans)
