UK - Situated in the garden village of Port Sunlight on the Wirral, the historic Gladstone Theatre began life as an assembly and recreation hall with a platform stage for entertainment. The half-timbered and red-brick structure was opened by Prime Minister William Gladstone in 1891 and saw a proscenium stage added in the 1920s. Converted to a theatre in the 1950s, the Gladstone continues to stage a diverse range of commercial productions from an eclectic range of artists.
Music of every type, comedy, theatre, pantomime, variety, and dance all feature at the 400-seater venue, which is also used by local societies and youth groups.
Catering for such a wide range of productions demands a versatile sound system, and the Gladstone recently took the decision to improve its audio provision with the installation of a Coda Audio solution. Venue technology specialists Adlib were engaged to supply and install the new system. The theatre team had been impressed by Coda Audio when Adlib had supplied a hire system for an important production, and requested a Coda sound design. Adlib’s George Puttock designed the final system, which had to meet the demands of a tight budget while still delivering premium audio.
George Puttock describes the challenges presented by this heritage building: “The space’s acoustic response is very good, owing to a combination of its original design and plush, very comfortable seats.
“The primary issues surrounded the need for keeping any flown payloads low, as well as making the best use of the limited space available. The former was mitigated by the use of Coda’s G-Series, three-way, high-output full range loudspeakers, where we used a pair each of compact and very versatile G712-Pro as mains and delays.
“With limited space next to the stage during productions, we opted to use a pair of compact G-18 subs in this position with our in-house joinery team opening up the front of the stage to allow an additional pair to be symmetrically installed. This allowed optimisation, control, and uniform delivery of low frequency coverage throughout the Theatre.”
The system was completed by the deployment of two Coda Audio HOPS5 (high output point source) loudspeakers as lip-fills, with the system driven by two Coda Audio LINUS12C 4 channel DSP amplifiers.
The theatre is very happy with its new system, which effortlessly caters for its wide-ranging programme, delivering clear and powerful sound to every seat in the house. General theatre manager Jamie Brown comments: “The engineers and the Adlib team have been amazing form start to finish. They explained the procedures and met our requirements with precision. We can’t thank them enough. The new Coda Audio system at the Gladstone takes our shows to a whole new level.”
Global sales and marketing director for Coda Audio, David Webster, adds: “It’s great to see a Coda Audio system in place in this historic setting. The team at Adlib have done a brilliant job of utilising the versatility of our G-Series to maximum advantage, where the nature of the hall’s interior architecture might otherwise have proved problematic.”
