Conceived by Todd Twala and Thembi Nyandeni, and brought to the stage by director Ian von Memerty, the task of 'sound designing' the story of African music fell to Trevor Peters. With FOH engineer, Tanja Somers, Trevor recommended that the show turn to both BSS and Trantec as the most effective and economic way of setting the delays and correcting the sound imaging, and supplying the requisite number of radio mic channels.
"I did the original sound design using more conventional equipment which I was familiar with, but then someone suggested I look at BSS’s Soundweb," said Peters. "Although I first saw Soundweb at the PLASA Show a couple of years ago, this has been my first opportunity to work with it. The system has enabled Trevor Peters to better image the sound in the stalls using delays and to time-align the sound at the balcony underhangs. "With the band being so far upstage, we’ve used delays to ensure that the sound emanating from the speakers reaches the audience at the same time as the sound coming off stage. This really tightens up the bottom end and increases the intelligibility in the mids and tops."
In terms of radio mics, Trantec supplied a full radio system with aerial distribution units and ground plain antenna. "When the production started a year and a half ago we had three rifle mics, two handheld radios and CD backing tracks, but as more funds became available, so the production has grown." In the West End 20 S4000 lavalier mics are worn by the cast with S3500s on the guitar and sax. "The fact that we are running 22 channels is quite a coup in itself because the S4000 is only supposed to support 16 channels," explains Peters. "But by using Channel 59 and 69 we have managed to get 20 running together - which makes the S4000 a multi-user system." The front-of-house technician for the show is Mark Cohen and the radio tech is Mark Dunn.
(Ruth Rossington)
