manufacturer – “ and since The PA Shop was the local Adamson supplier , we knew we wanted to make it work .”
The PA Shop ’ s design was built around Adamson ’ s installfocused IS-Series , which puts the performance of its sub-compact S-Series into sleek , architecturally-friendly enclosures .
“ My confidence in Adamson comes from the sheer build quality . I mean , they ’ re using Kevlar in their cones ,” Schroeyens asserts . “ It elevates the audience experience to a level that very few other manufacturers can do with consistency . The sound you get and that pure clarity and headroom in relation to the power you ’ re drawing – nothing compares .”
FOH position with Midas M32 digital mixer
Adamson IS10p point-source loudspeakers house left
The house system boasts flown pairs of IS10p point-source enclosures on each side of the stage as mains , two flown IS7ps covering the balcony , and a single IS219 subwoofer centred beneath the stage . Additionally , a complement of four ultra-compact Electro-Voice EVU-2062 / 95s line the front of the stage as lip fills .
As for the room they ’ re filling , it ’ s relatively square at 43 x 42 ft . with 31-ft . high ceilings and a rear balcony with a few dozen theatre-style seats .
“ It ’ s a great-sounding room – probably one of the most unique-sounding rooms in the country as far as I ’ m concerned ,” Babin enthuses . “ It ’ s fantastic for acoustic performances – classical , jazz … It just sings , but it also has a very certain resonance to it that at lower amplitude isn ’ t a problem , but once that amplitude gets more intense , we get into a bit of what I ’ d call “ swimming ” of the audio , so we needed a system that would be very clean , very precise , and very pointed to keep the sound off the side walls .”
That ’ s what steered them away from a line array solution and towards the more distributed system . “ The IS10ps are wide enough , yet are very source-oriented , so as soon as we did a test run with them – and we didn ’ t even tune or tweak anything at that point – I went , ‘ Oh my goodness ; this is it !’ All the reflections we had with the old system were gone without even working on it , so it was clear we ’ d made the right choice .”
One of the main challenges in the design and installation was properly covering the balcony . Babin admits it had been a source of criticism from patrons prior to the revamp , but with the dedicated IS7ps , that ’ s been entirely resolved . “ They just fill in that whole space so nicely , and thanks to that uniform voicing , there ’ s no difference between the floor and balcony .”
McCann notes that The PA Shop team benefitted from some close collaboration with Adamson application engineers on the system design , and relied heavily on the company ’ s Blueprint AV design and simulation software for optimization .
“ Jason Green and I were in there doing the room design , taking detailed dimensions and putting them into Blueprint to make sure our placements and angles were spot-on ,” he explains . “ Because the room can be very reflective with those side walls , Blueprint was key to helping us time those reflections perfectly and ensure there were no phase issues or anything .”
Of course , the room ’ s historic appointments also came into play with the system design . As Schroeyens explains , “ It ’ s a challenging room to rig because of those hand-cut wooden beams . There are very few points in the room and only a few ways to rig the speakers up properly , so getting the right , precise angles with all the right hardware was a challenge . By now , though , we ’ ve done enough successful Adamson installations that we ’ re very familiar with the team there . They ’ re always along for the ride and it ’ s a great partnership that extends right to the customer .”
Driving the system is a pair of Lab . gruppen amplifiers – a new D 200:4L and D 80:4L that share a rack with an existing three QSC RMX 1850HDs that drive the six legacy JBL JRX100 stage monitors when deployed .
As for his helm at FOH , Babin explains they ’ ve had the M32 since it first started shipping into Canada , thanks again to his old friend Ron Schroeyens , and he ’ s been more that pleased with its performance in the time since .
“ I remember Ron called when they were first available and said , ‘ Here ’ s your game-changer !’” Babin recalls . “ I usually trust Ron ’ s opinion , and one of the main challenges of our room is we don ’ t have a lot of space at the FOH position , so there was a lot about the Midas that appealed to us .”
And of course , it ’ s not just his opinion that matters in that regard , so Babin is happy to report that “ no visiting engineer has ever had a qualm about the console ,” adding : “ There are some boards people really tend to like or dislike , but the M32 is what I call the VW Bug for our craft ; it ’ s the people ’ s mixer [ laughs .]”
Rounding out the new package of gear is a complement of Shure and Sennheiser mics , some Radial Engineering DIs , and various heavy-duty K & M stands from PA Shop and a Shure QLXD series wireless system sourced through AVShop . com .
36 PROFESSIONAL SOUND