Thursford Spectacular upgrades to Axient
- Details
The Thursford Christmas Spectacular is a fast-moving celebration of the festive season, featuring a mix of both seasonal and year-round favourites. With a cast of over 130 members, consisting of a 30-piece orchestra, a 60-piece choir, 24 dancers, a comedian and speciality acts from all over the world, all performing to 1400 audience members on a stage that’s 140ft wide, it is one of the biggest shows of its kind in Europe. Musically, the show consists of a variety of performances ranging from classical choral arrangements to Christmas rock ‘n’ roll!
The show uses 26 head microphones and 10 handheld transmitters for its singers, which enables the choreography team to position performers anywhere on the stage or within the auditorium. A further 26 belt packs accommodate the majority of the orchestra’s instruments. There’s no orchestra pit at Thursford, so the musicians perform from multiple locations around the stage and venue. Essentially if they’re capable of carrying their instrument whilst playing it, they’ll have a radio system on them.
Kieran Lowe, head of sound, comments: “We started using Axient Digital in September 2021. We use 70 RF channels here at Thursford and when the 700mhz clearance program was put into place, we had to replace 14 channels of UHFR, so Axient Digital was the obvious and easy choice. In fact, taking into account our existing fleet of UHFR had been hugely reliable but there was no other choice for me really.
“We’re in the middle of the North Norfolk countryside and quickly popping out to pick up last minute replacements for unreliable kit is not an option for us. Also, the Axient receivers would be a straightforward replacement of our 700mhz UHFR units, connecting into our existing audio, networking and RF distribution.”
The 26 head microphone systems and 10 handheld transmitters accommodate the singers, but with different performers taking various lead step out positions throughout the show, there’s genuinely no two performances that are the same in their run of 80 shows. The RF technicians have to work out their complex mic plots for every show. In 2021, Covid added additional procedures of disinfecting cables and transmitters meaning it really is very busy during the shows.
Kieran Lowe adds: “I think the main challenge for us was to seamlessly achieve the same number of wireless channels in a smaller RF window. With the support from Shure, Axient has enabled us to do this effortlessly.”
Peppe Mallozzi, regional sales manager, pro audio, concludes: “The Thursford Christmas Spectacular is exactly the kind of show Axient Digital was designed for - a mission critical series of events that requires absolute reliability. I have been pleased to be able to support Kieran and the cast with a smooth transition to the system and we are proud to see the show running smoothly time after time.”
