The first project, a new-build lecture theatre and conference facility at Wolfson College, Oxford, required an audio solution with the ability to cope with a variety of uses from simple conference setups to live bands and performances. After looking at a number of consoles, design engineer Marcus Boyton from Lancelyn Theatre Supplies selected the Roland M-300 after trying it out at a Roland Training Day held at SSE Audio Group.
"We chose the M-300 because it is user friendly, has good utilities and effects and is flexible enough for the varying technical abilities of the users which can range from first time users to professional engineers," commented Boyton. "We worked closely together with the architects on this project and they also preferred the M-300 as the small footprint and subtle cosmetics meant that it fitted well in the tightly packed control room."
As part of the V-Mixing System, the M-300 provides a substantial mixing capacity of 32 mixing channels, 8 aux buses and 4 matrices. The M-300 is an ideal scalable solution for small to medium sized venues and is also lightweight and transportable- perfect for venues such as Wolfson College where the sound system is not a fixed installation.
The M-300 connects easily with Cat 5e to the Roland Digital Snake products for simple and high quality audio transmission, distribution, splits and merging. At Wolfson College, the M-300 was connected on a 25m cable run to the Roland S-1608 Stagebox, a 16 input x 8 output small format Digital Snake System providing high quality audio signal without high frequency losses or the bulk of an analog snake.
The technical requirements for a new build extension to the lecture theatre at nearby Pembroke College were more complex than those at Wolfson and the flagship console of the V-Mixing System, the M-480 was chosen. The M-480 forms part of a permanent sound system with Turbosound loudspeakers installed in the venue which is used as a lecture theatre but can also put on professional theatre and stage shows.
With 48 mixing channels plus 6 stereo returns for a total of 60 channels, the M-480 was able to offer the extra capability required for theatrical style performances held at Pembroke College, which has two professional technical staff for such events. Similarly to the M-300, the M-480 is also used for simple conference setups and can be operated easily by less technical staff using 'one touch' features as scene recall. Again, the compact footprint and the intuitive user interface were important factors when choosing the M-480 for this application.
(Jim Evans)
