"We're expanding our acting course to include a larger stream of musical theatre and so we knew we'd need some wireless headsets," commented Felix Kulakowski, audio & video supervisor at NIDA. "Jands allowed us to trial a unit of Shure ULX-D and the specs and cost, particularly for 24 channels, were great. Obviously being digital the wireless distribution is so much easier than analogue.
"For 24 channels of analogue wireless you'd need a hell of a lot of distribution and the Parade Theatre is appalling for RF. Wireless distribution has been a dream because you can theoretically have sixteen channels on one Shure wireless distribution system, whereas before you could only get four."
Felix has found the Shure ULX-D system to be rugged, idiot-proof and reliable, a necessity in a school.
Previously the amount of batteries that NIDA went through was, according to Felix, quite phenomenal and rechargeable batteries just didn't work out as they'd get lost or not charge correctly. Felix hates to think what the battery bill was before the Shure ULX-D system with its the battery and recharge station which not only saves money but helps the environment.
"I like having the four units per rack and that the product runs Dante which means we can run Dante to the front of house console and use the XLR outputs as monitor," added Felix. "The students will soon let you know the minute something goes wrong with a piece of gear but I haven't heard anything negative from them regarding the Shure ULX-D. Compared to our original ULX systems, it is definitely a few notches higher in features as well as performance."
Featuring surge protection, linear filtering technology, and extreme voltage shutdown, Furman Power Conditioners are without question one of the worlds most advanced and comprehensive transient voltage surge suppressors.
"The power at NIDA is generally pretty good however being theatre, the biggest single issue I get with every production is that there is always an unwelcome noise," explained Felix. "Even the tiniest noise in the system will have the director and students complaining especially if it is a quiet theatre production. The biggest thing I deal with all the time is showing students a cleaner way to run their signal chain, adjusting their gain, and bypassing devices. We had a consistent earthy buzz in the Parade Theatre's sound system for years and it was really hard to get a clean sound in the PA."
The decision was made to add Furman Power Conditioners to the racks and since then the audio interference has improved dramatically.
(Jim Evans)
