Orbital had long selected this digital environment for the Footloose tour of duty. Feedback on the desk which the production company provided following last year's production of Annie Get Your Gun has largely been incorporated into the new D-Show operating software, giving it the same cachet in the theatre world as it has been enjoying in the rock 'n' roll environment.
"A lot of minor issues have been addressed, predominantly to do with Snapshots, which now make this desk awesome," says Orbital sound designer Gareth Owen, who gave the new software a clean bill of health after subjecting it to a thorough stress testing. "The crossfade times now go up to 99 secs - which make scene plotting easier - but the big step forward is in the scene handling, thanks to the Recall Safe facility."
This allows operators to filter the recall of any parameter on any channel or output on a global basis, allowing for real-time adjustments without losing changes with a subsequent snapshot recall. "Using the Scope facility allows the recall of specific elements - such as EQ settings or fader positions; alternatively you can recall everything (except those parameters defined in Recall Safe), or you can have a cool combination of the two."
The Snapshot Preview Mode, meanwhile, enables operators to take the D-Show console offline from the audio mix and create, modify, manage, store, and view snapshots in their entirety without affecting the currently active mix. "This innovative approach has created the most powerful means of programming a theatre show by quite a distance, and it now puts Digidesign way ahead of the game," continued the Orbital designer. "This innovative approach has created the most powerful means of programming a theatre show by quite a distance, and it now puts Digidesign way ahead of the game," continued the Orbital designer. "The improvements they have made to the Propagate mode make it much more difficult to inadvertently mess things up. The new Absolute and Relative edit modes mean you can make small changes to large groups of scenes with the minimum of effort. The two different scene handling modes make the console flexible enough to programme in whatever style you prefer."
Gareth Owen's creativity isn't confined to his implementation of the Digidesign Venue. He has also devised an experimental loudspeaker configuration for this production. "We generally put subs on the advance truss but that can result in insufficient sub frequencies in the Circle and too much in the Gallery - so we've tried to alleviate that by bringing the subs closer to the audience."
As a result, the d&b subs are rigged on all four tiers - B2s in the Stalls, C4s in the two Circle levels and the E18s in the Gallery. "In this way we can achieve a tighter, more direct sound than we would by sending sub energy through freespace from the pros arch."
He has also deployed 20 d&b C7s in an L/C/R system - but in pairs, splitting the band and vocal systems in every part of the theatre (including the delays and surrounds). "It means there are a large number of speakers - but we have done this because in the loud numbers, where handheld mics are used, the speakers can become overpowered by the vocals. In this way the vocals and the band can each do their thing - providing more of a smooth controlled sound coming out of both speakers."
But rigging the speakers had presented its own set of challenges. Orbital had to install a heavy duty goalpost scaffolding array to hoist the speakers as far off the stage as possible. "The Novello is not really su
