London-based PA company Systems Etc is showing some fancy footwork of its own, providing varied configurations of its new Electro-Voice XLE line array system to suit the diverse venues on the tour.
Although Systems Etc, one of the biggest Electro-Voice rental companies in the UK, also stocks XLC and XLD array systems, it was the XLE cabinets that particularly suited the Simply Ballroom tour because of their ultra-compact profile.
Tracking up and down the UK, the production can be found in town playhouses and the city theatres, with audiences varying from 650 to 2500 people. "The size of the XLE is perfect for theatre," says front-of-house engineer Perry Wetherill.
"For this tour, more than most because of the dancers using every inch of the stage, it's all about sightlines. We needed a low profile as well as the dynamics."
Simply Ballroom is no ordinary dance show - it's a lavish production which fuses the colour and spectacle of ballroom dance with live theatre. Choreographed by TV's dancing stars, Erin Boag and Anton Du Beke, the production features a cast of world-class dance champions who showcase the Waltz, Cha Cha, Salsa, Rumba, Quickstep and many more.
The show is touring with a five-piece live band, host Lionel Blair has a radio microphone, and the rest of the mix is eight tracks of click-track and two backing vocals.
"Vocally, the XLE cabinets sound brilliant," says Wetherill. "I admit, I'm not the world's biggest fan of line array, but, once we finally had the XLE system in place, in the flying positions it has been designed for, I was completely satisfied with it. Not surprised, because it did everything that Electro-Voice said it would do - I thought it was just excellent."
The largest venue on the current leg of the tour is the Hippodrome in Birmingham, a 2,500-capacity theatre which required left and right arrays of 12x XLE181 2-way boxes, plus two XLC215 subs per side. The system, which is powered by EV's P3000 Precision Series amplifiers, is set up using EV's IRIS management software. The XLE181s, which use an 8" neodymium LF/MB transducer and dual ND2S HF driver combination with a 120° x 10° waveguide coverage, weigh less than 18 kg (40lbs) per unit, ideal for flying in low trim rooms, and where weight restrictions apply.
In smaller venues which don't have appropriate flying points for line array use, Wetherill is groundstacking the system, typically with four XLE1812s on top of two XLC215 subs, sometimessupported by another line of four XLE cabinets in a central cluster.
At front-of-house, Wetherill is using a Klark Teknik DN9340 Helix Digital Equaliser, with slave, to get the sound he wants.
(Jim Evans)
