"In 2002, we decided that we were going to have some of the most technologically equipped theatres in Canada," recalls Warren Busby, head of audio / assistant technical director for both venues. "We undertook a multi-million dollar renovation of the 1416 seat Royal Theatre and with that, purchased new technical equipment including the very first Yamaha PM1D ever to be installed in a venue in Canada.
"We continued to be state-of-the-art for many years and then, in 2012, we decided it was time to replace the PM1D - not because it wasn't functional, but rather it was no longer supported by Yamaha and parts were no longer being manufactured."
This started Warren's console search. He had already seen the SD8 and SD10 a few years prior, but wanted a console that offered multiple screens, but wasn't going to use his entire budget.
"As we host a large number of operators, having multiple screens to work on while they are busy mixing was rather important to me," he explains. "I demoed a number of different manufacturers' consoles, and when it comes down to spending this kind of money, any of them would have worked and sounded ok. However, after speaking to people that own (and service) them, I began to lean away from most of them due to parts and servicing issues not to mention lack of software updates."
"Shawn Heines [from Gerr Audio, DiGiCo's Canadian distributor] and I had an understanding; when DiGiCo had something with more than one screen that would fit within our budget, we would talk more." When DiGiCo launched its SD5, Warren knew that it had everything he wanted and needed.
"Shawn and Gerr's President Bob Snelgrove knew this and invited me to be their guest at a small trade show Gerr was hosting in Toronto, where the SD5 was going to make its Canadian debut," he continues. "DiGiCo's Tim Shaxson was kind enough to join us from the UK and spent time with me one-on-one explaining the features of the console. He also provided information on the DiGiCo console 'trade up' program that was being offered with the SD5 by Gerr. It turned out that we would be the first to have an SD5 in Canada."
The final system consists of the SD5 and an SD-Mini Rack at FOH, an SD-Rack stage right and a D-Rack with optical stage left. All pieces are on an optical loop with patch points for the SD10 monitor console either stage left or right. The two consoles gain share the SD-Rack.
"After all this planning for the Royal Theatre, and to stick with our mandate of providing cutting edge technology, we decided to purchase an SD9 for the smaller 772 seat McPherson Playhouse. We decided it was important to have continuity of equipment between our two theatres as there are multiple operators and the SD9 Rack Pack was too good of a deal to pass up on."
(Jim Evans)
