The Maxine Theatre (Valley Center, Calif., maxine.vcpusd.net) serves an audience ranging from high school PTA meetings to national touring acts. At 580 seats, the beautifully appointed room was designed by Davy Architects of San Diego, Calif., and features non-parallel side walls, a curving back wall, and graded floors and ceiling.
At the request of Davy Architects’ Jennifer Robinson, Quiet Voice Audio (Fallbrook, Calif., www.homestead.com/quietvoiceaudio/qva1.html), collaborated with the architectural firm to implement a sound reinforcement blueprint that would successfully meet the theater’s versatile needs. Joined on the project by Quiet Voice senior engineer David Henk and system engineer Barry DeHart, Quiet Voice founder Jon Bart found that he needed to build a system that was both tough enough to withstand the serious professional use of those fully comfortable around an Allen & Heath ML5000 Series console and easy enough to use for entry-level operators such as classroom teachers.
Helping to solve this dilemma was eight Shure SLX UHF wireless microphone systems, which can be used with a choice of handheld transmitters sporting Beta 58 capsules or bodypack transmitters. “The SLX has everything we need to meet the needs of big-time touring concert riders, while still allowing us to zero in on the comfort zone of layman operators who frequently use the room,” Bart notes. “With SLX, I can hand someone who has little or no systems experience a handheld transmitter, and in a minute’s time, they are familiar with it. The on/off and mute switches are intuitive to use, and setup is as easy as pressing a button. So far, new users in the theater feel good about the mic even before they hear it.
“We were actually committed to another mic line for years,” Bart continues. “But when the new SLX line came out, we started doing some hard A/B testing. What we found was that Shure came out on top from a sonic standpoint, as well as in terms of ease of setup. The SLX systems give us the best bang for the buck. Now, all we sell is Shure.”
For more information on Shure, visit www.shure.com.
