The Empire Theatre is reborn with help from dampb
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre – A 1,500-seat Australian heritage venue with a rich history of reinvention – has been installed with a d&b audiotechnik T-Series front of house system by National Audio Systems (NAS). Due to the building’s listed status, the system has been designed without the need for under-balcony fills.
The theatre – reportedly the largest regional auditorium in Australia – is set to celebrate its centenary in June, though it became famous for more than just its performances in 1933 when it burnt down, sparking the first of many rebirths that have seen it become a prized part of Australian history. The venue was rebuilt nine months later, gifting it an art-deco proscenium which still remains intact today, and enjoyed several decades of success as a movie theatre until it was abandoned in the early 1970s, not to be reopened until civic-funded renovation programme returned it to use in 1997. The addition of the d&b reinforcement system is viewed by head of audio Steve Alexander as the final step taking the venue into the modern era.
‘When I joined two years ago the only thing that required attention was the PA system, not through neglect, but just the fact that it had been well used and was in need of some attention,’ Mr Alexander explained. However, the history attached to the Empire Theatre required Mr Alexander to exercise sensitivity in his choice of system. ‘We’re all very proud of our theatre, including The Friends of the Empire – a large group of volunteers, so in suggesting change I had to work towards consensus. We conducted several in-house tests and I created a decision matrix against which we judged the contenders.’
He continued: ‘We don’t get a lot of rock and roll in here – the majority of our performances are theatrical. It also needed to be physically discreet; we didn’t want some large visually intrusive system ruining the aesthetic beauty of the proscenium.’
Mr Alexander eventually chose a T-Series installation designed by Dave Jacques from NAS which reportedly takes the balcony’s wide and deep design into consideration, and which has been rigged in such a way as to eliminate under-balcony fills. Only a pair of Ci80 enclosures have been placed at the rear of the auditorium for use as mix delays for the front of house position. Meanwhile, d&b B4 subwoofers have been subtly installed into the theatre’s Juliet boxes, while three E0 loudspeakers have been positioned across the front of the stage as front-fills.
‘That underlines just how comprehensive the coverage is from the main flown T system,’ concluded Mr Alexander. ‘We’re getting productions turn up with a truck load of PA; the sound engineer arrives, takes a look at the house system, and they just leave the kit on the dock. These guys aren’t even wanting to fiddle with the system EQ. We’re all just very pleased.’