Whitehorse City Council in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne knew it needed to replace its aging Whitehorse Centre, bit the bullet, and fully funded the necessary $78m investment to create a new landmark venue for its community. It’s a good-looking, state-of-the-art complex with a 626-seat Theatre, a black box Studio for 203 with a retractable seating bank, a large public foyer, a full Function Centre, Creative Spaces and an outdoor amphitheatre to service a diverse range of stakeholders. In other words, it’s a true community centre catering to top-level touring acts, primary school dance groups, and everything in between.
THE CHALLENGE
The orchestra lift/pit is a significant part of the theatre design and has implications for the loudspeaker system. When activated, the automated system occupies the first three rows of the seating area, accommodates up to 28 musicians plus conductor, and can either sink 1400mm below the seating area or 1000mm above. It’s a fantastic feature and caters well to one of the theatre’s principal use-cases, namely musical theatre.
When The Round isn’t staging pro or amateur musical theatre productions it’s hosting predominantly amplified events – rock concerts, dance concerts, spoken presentations and the like.
Any PA in The Round would need a high degree of uniformity in the coverage, and be able to accommodate the different modes around whether the orchestra pit was in play or not.
THE FIX
Left/right arrays of d&b audiotechnik Y-Series handle the loudspeaker duties of The Round. Each array is six elements deep (4 x Y8, 2 x Y12), each with two flown Y Series cardioid subwoofers. d&b 40D and 20D amps provide the power and DSP. The system uses d&b’s Array Processing, which not only more precisely matches the dispersion pattern of the PA to the dimensions of the room, but also takes care of the one-touch electronic reconfiguring of the PA when the orchestra pit or orchestra stage extension is deployed – keeping FOH sound away from sensitive orchestra microphones. Thanks to the Array Processing, The Round tech team can leave the PA alone – no need for manual handling and reconfiguration. d&b 44S front fills are built flush into the stage and the stage extension. Rounding out the d&b package are 8 x d&b audiotechnik Max2 stage monitors.
THE RESULT
Technical Supervisor, Cameron Canobie, was quick to answer the call to return to the Whitehorse precinct when The Round came back on line. Cam is an audio guy first, but has enjoyed working with the full suite of high quality lighting and vision gear that’s gone into The Round: “Y-Series has been a great choice. It is physically the right size for this venue and provides excellent tonality and control from front to back. In my measurements I’ve found only about a half dB difference from the centre of the auditorium to my mix position. This means we can mix with confidence, knowing we’re hearing what patrons are hearing, which is perfect from an audio engineering perspective. Performance-wise, it’s exceptional, and supports both the touring acts and the theatre’s needs.”
Looks like the City of Whitehorse will be enjoying many decades of use from The Round thanks to sound planning and investment.
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