SAINT ALBERT, Canada –
Catering to a wide array of events ranging from live concerts to full
theatrical productions, the Arden Theatre in the Canadian province of Alberta
is a dynamic venue where folk, blues, modern rock and jazz music come to life.
To deliver world-class sound for its programs and events, the Arden Theatre
currently employs HARMAN’s Soundcraft Vi6 and Vi1 mixing consoles.
The Arden Theatre is an
intimate space that seats 509 people, with a stage that is 40 feet wide and 26
feet deep. Of its 240 shows per year, the Arden Theatre features many repeat
performers that are drawn back by the facility’s acoustics. With such a variety
of performers, in-house Sound Technician Tyler Patrick finds the digital
features of the Soundcraft Vi consoles to be essential to his workflow.
“We have a lot of shows that
come back year after year, so the ability to recall stored settings is huge for
us,” said Patrick. “The Vi6 with a Compact Stagebox allows us to have an
expanded channel count at front of house and the Vi1 is perfect for our monitor
position. With these consoles, we’re able to mix our big yearly musicals
without problems.”
When deciding to transition
out of analog, the technical staff attended demos of digital consoles from
various audio brands, none of which struck as strong a chord as the Soundcraft
Vi Series. According to Patrick, ease-of-use features like Vistonics™ and
FaderGlowTM were the factors that took the Vi6 and the Vi1 beyond excellent
sound quality.
“The Vistonics touchscreen is
so easy to use, and the biggest selling point for me is that it allows for more
than one person to operate the console at the same time,” said Patrick. “Many
of the artists who play here bring their own engineer. Also, sometimes we allow
high school students to come and operate the sound equipment on their own.
Naturally, we place a high value on ease of use.”
Patrick continued to explain
why he loves every aspect of the Soundcraft consoles. “When we first plugged in
the Soundcraft Vi consoles, they sounded like analog desks without any
harshness of a digital desk,” he said. “It sounds very smooth, exactly like you
would expect a high-quality board to sound. The parametric EQ’s on the channels
are fantastic and responsive.”
As part of the venue’s future
growth, the production team has partnered with a video company to offer
web-streaming capabilities for its shows. To this end, it is planning to use
the Vi6 console to send multi-track audio via optical MADI to the Soundcraft
Vi1 console, which in turn will be managed separately in a different room.
Webcasts with pristine sound quality will be available next year thanks to this
configuration.
While in-house and guest
engineers are getting used to the five minute setup times of the Soundcraft
consoles, the theater is well-equipped to serve the local community of Saint
Albert for years to come.
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