Now run by a charitable trust and attracting many thousands of visitors per year, since 1977 the Thursford Collection has put on an annual Christmas Spectacular. Produced and directed by Cushing's son John, managing director of the Collection for over thirty years, the Christmas Spectacular runs from early November until just before Christmas and is claimed to be the most popular Christmas show in England of all time.
Ironically, given that Thursford's raison d'Ωtre is evoking the past, the Christmas Spectacular's production values are so high that it requires the very latest in audio technology, including a Yamaha PM5D-RH, two DSP5Ds, an 01V96 and an LS9-32.
The event's associate sound engineer is Amos Christie, who played a major part in designing the system, which was supplied by Brodie AMS, the company run by the event's head of sound Steve Brodie, who also mixes the shows.
"It's a very big and complex show with a lot of different elements," says Christie. "We have a live orchestra, a live band, singers, dancers - the total number of performers is around 150. The show takes place in the hall we use for exhibiting the steam engines during the rest of the year, so there are also acoustic issues to take into account."
Feeds for the PM5D main front of house console come from two DSP5Ds, via a DCU5D digital cabling unit, which handle all the inputs from the orchestra, band, handheld radio and lavalier microphones.
In addition, a total of 32 overhead and shotgun mics are submixed via an 01V96. These are positioned over the main stage, two side stages and throughout the auditorium. During the show, performers move around the audience, so the audio from these mics is fed either to the main Meyer speaker system or to surround and rear speakers for effect.
Meanwhile the LS9-32 handles monitors, feeding a variety of small frontstage wedges, band wedges, in-ear monitors and Aviom personal monitor systems. This is controlled by Steve Brodie via Yamaha Studio Manager software.
"To control such a complex show with just one operator is quite a feat," says Brodie. "But with the Yamaha equipment and the seamless integration between the different mixers, it makes it possible. That's one of the many reasons we have embraced digital audio technology and Yamaha equipment in particular."
(Jim Evans)
