Summer Mummers runs for three months each summer and attracts audiences from around the world. The show comprises a 'Melodrama' interspersed with 'Moviola' segments, with the second half of the evening featuring a rapid-fire set of skits known as the 'Olio'. Boisterous crowds are the norm, with popcorn-throwing encouraged; for that reason, a relatively powerful sound system was necessary to ensure intelligibility.
System designer Milt Hathaway of FitzCo Sound reports: "The system was designed for greatest gain-before-feedback, while staying within the budget of a community theatre. It has a central array of seven XLCi 127DVX boxes, with a delay ring of seven ZX1i compact loudspeakers to cover the under-balcony area. Power is provided by six P3000RL remote control amplifiers running IRIS-Net control and supervision software (via a UCC1 USB to CAN-bus interface).
"While the design may appear to be overkill for a house that only seats 550, the system had to be capable of reproducing intelligible speech at sound levels high enough to be heard over the typically raucous crowds that come to Summer Mummers performances every summer. The precise pattern control of the XLCi line array allowed us to achieve this while mic'ing the performers with nothing more than three floor mic's and two overhead mic's. And I can't say enough about how easily the ZX1i cabinets installed and how great they sound."
(Jim Evans)
