Canada - The Royal Theatre and its sibling the McPherson Playhouse are Vancouver Island’s oldest venues. Hosting everything from symphony concerts to plays and Broadway tours, the pair form the beating heart of the Capital Regional District’s performing arts scene.
While steeped in history dating back to 1913, their wireless audio technology is the very latest, built around Lectrosonics’ D Squared family of cutting-edge digital wireless. Serving all sizes of theatre companies, musical ensembles, and even full orchestras, their current complement includes six DSQD four-channel wideband receivers, 24 DBu transmitters, four DHu handheld wireless microphones, four DPR-A Plug-on transmitters, and two ultra-compact SSM transmitters featuring Lectrosonics’ time-tested Digital Hybrid radios.
Technical director Warren Busby spoke with Lectrosonics about the theatres’ audio applications, and how all the gear works in harmony thanks to Wireless Designer software.
“We’ve been using Lectrosonics since 2004,” begins Busby. “I believe we were the first theatre in Canada to deploy the Venue system. Colin Bernard, Lectrosonics’ director of operations in Canada, was looking to increase presence in the theatre market. We bought a Venue receiver rack, six belt packs, plug-on transmitters, a whole system for the Royal, which is the larger of our two facilities at 1,416 seats. In 2017, a Venue 2 system was added at the Royal with 6 HHa transmitters and 6 SMQV transmitters to complement the original Venue system.
“All of the theatres’ wireless has been supplied by Pacific Audio Works, a long-time Vancouver Island audio production company. In about 2018, we wanted to upgrade the smaller McPherson Playhouse, as it’s home to the majority of the live theatre events, with 772 seats.”
Here, Lectrosonics’ then-nascent D Squared digital wireless proved a good fit for Canada’s changing radio frequency landscape. “The D Squared system was brand spanking new at the time. One of its main benefits was that you could achieve more usable channels within a given range of RF spectrum, while needing less bandwidth of separation between those channels. This aligned with how Industry Canada was selling off a lot of the spectrum, some of which our competitors were using for their wireless. So, we demo’ed a system quickly, and wound up going with four of the DSQD receivers, for a total of 16 channels.”
The transmitter side of the equation is (almost) all digital as well, as Busby details: “We bought 16 of the DBu belt packs, which are used in a number of other theatres, plus four DHu handheld mics. There are also a couple of the tiny SSM transmitters, which are Digital Hybrid, but the DSQD can receive in hybrid mode just fine, so we have these for when an actor requires the smallest and lightest pack possible. We were able to use the entire system exactly one time before the world shut down with COVID. When we got back up and running, we added eight more channels, so now it’s a 24-channel system.”
Frequency coordination at the McPherson has two, sometimes opposing, challenges: the potentially large channel count in a relatively compact space, and a rotating roster of companies and performers. Gordon Heal, who is Busby’s head of audio and assistant technical director, handles both with Wireless Designer software.
The degree of agility offered by the wideband receivers paired with Wireless Designer means that the Royal and McPherson can host any type or size of performance. “For one run, our challenge might be dealing with a community theatre company that needs a whole lot of wireless and where some actors might come in with their own gear, and/or be a bit overconfident about their grasp of sound,” reflects Busby.
“Our role is to do our job while also gently educating, and the Lectrosonics system certainly makes that easier. On the other hand, for the 2024 holiday season we had the Victoria Symphony performing the soundtrack to Home Alone while the movie was being screened onstage. We simply put packs on the concertmaster and other key players, and we knew that we’d not only have great sound quality, but someone can step forward to perform a solo without affecting what the audience hears.”
Finally, Busby cites Lectrosonics’ personalised customer service as invaluable to keeping his ever-evolving world of live theatre running smoothly.
