In 1999, AV systems integrator Boston Light & Sound was brought in to design and install a PA system utilising a pair of EAW MQ1364 MF/HF Array Loudspeakers on either side of an MQTD412 LF Array Loudspeaker with a single MQ1394 below and JF290zs for L&R Orchestra-fill. At the time, with the theatre's balcony closed, the system provided complete coverage of the venue's main-floor and mezzanine seating areas. In 2003, when the balcony was reopened after extensive reconstruction as part of the theatre's 100th anniversary, additional EAW AS690e fill speakers were added for balcony coverage, based on a consultant's design.
Over the summer of 2011, it was decided that the balcony required additional PA coverage, primarily due to the less than optimal architecturally dictated location of the balcony fills. To accomplish that, Boston Light & Sound was brought back in to replace the centre cluster with 10 EAW NTL720 compact, self-powered, three-way line array loudspeaker modules. These provide full coverage of the balcony's first several rows, as well as the rest of the venue.
A pair of EAW SB1001 Subwoofers extends low frequency response when required. In the process of adjusting the Cutler Majestic Theatre's sound needs as it progressed through its evolution, EAW showed how even several generations of its components spanning as much as a dozen years were still able to create a single, integrated system that served the theatre's needs exactly.
"It's pretty amazing when you think about it," says Mark Rowinski, systems design engineer at Boston Light & Sound. "All the components matched perfectly. The entire EAW system performs very, very well and the coverage is completely even throughout the house. And it sounds fantastic. It's got that EAW sound that sounded great in 1999 and still sounds great today."
(Jim Evans)
