Norwood Theatre upgrades with Soundcraft
- Details
Built in 1927 and fully renovated in 2012, the Norwood Theatre is a performance venue that hosts concerts, plays, musicals, and comedy in Norwood, a southwestern suburb of Boston.
As part of the 2012 renovation, Norwood Theatre turned to provider Pro Sound Services to install a complete HarmanProfessional live sound reinforcement solution, consisting of JBL VT4886 and VRX Series loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS signal processors and a Soundcraft Vi1 console at front-of-house.
Norwood Theatre’s production staff were pleased with the workflow and sound quality of the Vi1, but they wanted to upgrade to a similar desk with more faders. In 2022, outgoing production manager Ed DiMarzio and current production manager Jeff Morley worked closely with Charlie Tappa of Pro Sound Service to replace the Vi1 with a new Soundcraft Vi3000 digital live sound console at Norwood Theatre’s front-of-house mix position.
“The system we installed in 2012 was part of a major renovation,” said Tappa. “We did analysis on what would be the best products to fulfill their needs, not only for live music performances, but for pro theatre as well. The combination of the JBL loudspeaker system and Soundcraft mixing solutions has worked very well for them. All through the 10 years since that installation, the customer said that they wish they’d invested in a larger console. They didn’t need more inputs, but they wanted more faders on the control surface. The Vi3000 was the next natural progression.”
The Vi3000 is a 36-fader, 24-buss digital live sound console with two expansion bays that can be fitted with MADI Stagebox cards to connect multiple Soundcraft Stageboxes at one time. The Vi3000 can also accommodate the new Soundcraft Realtime Rack, a hardware/software unit that provides access to 74 industry-standard UAD plug-ins. The Vi3000 is the first Soundcraft console to incorporate a Dante interface for seamless digital audio networking with Dante-enabled devices. Morley noted the versatility the Vi3000 provides when simultaneously mixing and recording events at Norwood Theatre.
“I really liked the sound of the Vi1 and its workflow but wanted more faders on deck,” said Morley. “I also wanted the additional flexibility it has with built-in Dante for recording and the capability to support both a stage box and the Soundcraft Realtime Rack plug-in engine via MADI. The other nice thing is the patchable BSS DPR901ii Dynamic EQs - they’re a great tool to have on hand when mixing.”
