Huntsville, Ontario, Canada (September 10, 2015)—Updating a venue’s console is always a risk, as it has to be familiar and rider-friendly, yet also as future-proof as possible. The 400-seat Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada, which hosts plays, musical performances, meetings, video and corporate presentations, school groups and more, and when it came time to pick a new desk, real-world experience played a part, too. When a touring group brought in its own console, Chris Boon, theatre technical director, found his next console was in the venue.
That desk was a Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console at front of house (purchased through Westbury Show Systems Ltd.), with Boon opting to move the former FOH desk—a Yamaha M748CL—to the monitor position. The two consoles are connected to the CL5 head-amps via Dante networking cards and switches, and consists of both primary and secondary networks.“
“The M7CL48 has been a great, solid console for us, states Boon. Over the last few years, as tour sound engineer requirements were changing and with advancing console technologies, I felt it was time to upgrade the mix position at FOH. I also wanted to update our old analog console located at monitors. So we moved the M7CL to monitors and started researching a console to fit our FOH needs.’
During the time Boon was researching digital consoles, a touring group came into the theatre and travelling with one of the first Yamaha CL5’s to hit the Canadian market. While it was at the theatre, Boon had the opportunity to test-drive the console. “I found that all functions were well laid out and not cluttered. When you push a button on the screen, it did exactly what you expected it to do (ease of operation is important for a venue that does numerous ‘one off’ shows with touring sound engineers). The room just warmed right up. There is a definite step up in the sound quality of the head amps.”
“After using and hearing the board, I decided that this was the right console for our venue. It has been a great system for us, including the ability to be able to record 64 tracks.” Something Boon said he noticed when he first saw the CL5 was the quality difference in the faders. “They looked sharp, felt sturdy and move smoothly. Some of the key features I was looking for in a digital console was editable channel names and colors which the CL5 has and very simple to program.”
The system network was installed as a Star Topology (LAN) to allow the use of redundant primary and secondary lines for each device. Two Cisco SG3000 Gigabit switches were used at FOH along with one Yamaha Ri8-D input box and one Ro8 output box and another two Cisco SG3000s at monitors to connect stage boxes and consoles primary and secondary lines. The M7CL was outfitted with three DANTE MY16-AUD 16X16 cards (48 channels) to allow connection to the network, with one Rio3224-D input/output box and two Ri8-D input boxes. Cisco SG3000 software was used to setup the appropriate internal network switch settings and the Dante Controller to handle channel assigning.
Algonquin Theatre
http://www.algonquintheatre.ca/en
Yamaha Pro Audio
www.yamaha.com
