The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Southern California, recognized as one of the most advanced theater and performing arts facilities in the nation, has purchased a Bag End (www.bagend.com) Opal loudspeaker system, supplemented by four TA6000s, for its newest venue, the Sierra Room.
What makes the Cerritos Center unique is its flexibility. In a matter of hours, pneumatic lifts can completely reconfigure the interior in six different venues: a 1,700-seat in-the-round venue featuring a revolving center stage; a 1,300-seat theater for opera, Broadway shows or dance productions; a 1,600-seat concert hall with classic proscenium setup; a 1,600-seat cabaret with chairs and tables; a 940-seat classic theater productions; or the newest configuration, an intimate 300-seat space for live entertainment.
The newest configuration, the Sierra Room, is a 5,000-square-foot venue that has been adapted as an intimate live performance room to host a series called Sierra Nights. “When we started developing this new space for live performances, we needed a P.A. system for it,” said Jack Hayback, chief audio/video engineer for the Center. “There are Neutrik Speakon outputs all around the room that terminate at amplifiers already installed in the area, so we wanted a passive system that had to be high efficiency and provide good sound.”
Hayback purchased six Opals and four TA6000s. The Opal—a two-way, time-aligned ported system loaded with a 12-inch, high-efficiency, low-frequency cone driver and a high-compression driver with 3-inch diaphragm and voice coil driving a custom-designed oval, high-frequency wave guide—delivers extraordinary high output and fidelity in a compact enclosure.
The TA6000 is a time-aligned, compact, speech range, high-output loudspeaker system that offers both high efficiency and high fidelity. It contains a pair of low-frequency 6.5-inch cones with 1.5 voice coils and an HF horn with a 1.8-inch titanium diaphragm, and weighs just 26 pounds.
“We are using the Opals in two clusters of three as the main P.A. system in this Sierra Room: flown left and right,” Hayback said. “The TA6000s are being used on the front edge of the stage as frontfills. The four are divided symmetrically on the stage. The stage is actually shaped kind of like a thrust. There are two on the front edge of the stage and then on the sides where it is thrust out at an angle, one on each side. We send the vocal-only mix to those speakers to provide clarity in the front.”
The system is powered by a pair of QSC EX1250 amplifiers with 275 watts per channel and mixed through a Yamaha DM2000 mixing console.
Hayback has actually expanded his use of the TA6000 speakers. He also employs them in the larger main space, which the center staff calls the “large arena configuration,” using them to do the same job he uses them for in the Sierra Room: as main frontfill speakers. He feeds them a vocal-only mix just as he does in the smaller Sierra Room, but this time on the larger main-arena stage.
