Photo: John Koo
Since March 2010, Le Groupe Merveilles Inc., the current owners of the Rialto Theatre in Montreal, have been working to revitalize the building as a center for the performing arts. The technical upgrades were designed by Co-Technical Directors Drew Malamud and Laurent Magne. Theatrixx, Adamson’s exclusive Canadian distributors based in Montreal, provided a new Adamson SpekTrix loudspeaker system powered with Lab.gruppen PLM with Dolby Lake processing.
Constructed in 1923-1924 and designed by Montreal architect Joseph-Raoul Gariépy, who specialized in theater and hospital projects, the Rialto Theatre was inspired by the Neo-Baroque style of the Paris Opera House. The Rialto Theatre is one of the most iconic buildings in Montreal, and is a former movie palace which today is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. In March 2010, Le Groupe Merveilles Inc. purchased the Rialto, commencing restoration. Today the main floor supports 708 people (standing), 450 people in theater row seating, 350 in cabaret style seating. The newly opened balcony holds an additional 450 seated people.
Photo: John Koo
In order to preserve the architectural beauty and clean sight lines, the ground stacked P.A. system is made up of 4x Spektrix 5 degree boxes mounted atop a double 18-inch cardioid sub placed left and right of the stage with a single T21 Center sub covering the floor level. The balconies feature a flown SpekTrix sub with 3x SpekTrix 5 degree boxes under-hung to the left and right of the balcony.
The theater also added a Midas Heritage 3000 analog console for front-of-house and a 48-channel Yamaha MC7L digital console for monitors, along with Shure and Sennheiser microphones. Onstage, 10 Adamson M series M12 and M15 wedges powered by Powersoft offer flexible monitoring for the various styles of performers and events, such as live concerts, film, dance and theatrical performances.
For more information, visit www.adamsonsystems.com and Théâtre Rialto.
