Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2012 - 28

PC or Apple Macintosh to analyze multiple inputs and sources
simultaneously. Jamie Anderson from Rational Acoustics was on
hand for much of the time to demonstrate the system for visitors
and allow them to put SMAART through its paces. The Testing
and Measurement station was consistently busy with plenty of
students, faculty, and professionals stopping by to talk to the
experts and work with these systems.
The Control Systems station was one of the highlights of
the Sound Lab. We were able to present mixing consoles from
three different manufacturers in the same space. Yamaha Commercial Audio provided the lab with their M7CL - 48ES. This
forty-eight-channel digital mixer was equipped with an Ethersound card which allows connection of up to three remote
digital input/output boxes via Cat5 cable as well retaining eight
local analog inputs and outputs. The Yamaha's forty-eight discrete channel faders and its touch screen display make it a
powerful and flexible console for medium-sized venues and live
sound applications. Next, the visitor to this station would find
one of the latest consoles available from Soundcraft by Harman.
The Soundcraft Vi-1 digital live sound console is the smallest
and most economical model in the acclaimed Vi line and includes the capacity for up to sixty-four channels of input and
thirty-two channels of output. The Vi-1 balances superior sonic
quality with a smaller footprint and reasonable price to create a
console that is quickly gaining popularity.
The next control system at our station was the Meyer Sound
Labs CueStation system for the D-Mitri Audio Platform. The DMitri audio modules also created the backbone for much of the
Sound Lab and performed all of the processing for the Constellation system. But this powerful audio platform is controlled by
a software system called CueStation. The CueStation system provides amazingly powerful and flexible control over all aspects
of the D-Mitri audio modules. It works not only as a mixing
console but controls routing and processing for all of the units.
CueStation can control the smallest details of the signal path as
well as performing the tasks of the typical mixing console and

playback device, and, by adding the CueConsole control surface,
the user has physical faders and buttons as well. CueStation is a
unique and powerful tool for the control of audio; paired with the
D-Mitri audio modules, there are very few limits to what it can
do. As more and more theatres are looking at the possibility of
migrating to digital consoles, the Control station was very popular
among visitors to the Sound Lab. The ability to work on and look
at three different consoles from three different manufacturers in
the same space is something that could only happen at USITT.
Our Playback station also features the CueStation system,
now used to interface with the D-Mitri Wild Tracks system, providing a powerful and flexible system for playing back audio
cues. CueStation acts as the control system for triggering the
Wild Tracks unit, which provides playback as well as storage
of the sound files. With the amazing flexibility of the CueStation system and the power of the Wild Tracks unit, the user is
provided with a playback system to meet the needs of any production. Also featured at the Playback station was QLab version
2 by Figure 53. QLab runs on the Apple Macintosh platform
and is powerful audio playback software that allows the user
to organize sound playback in a similar way to the cue list in a
modern lighting console. By simply "pushing a button," sound
cues and changes can be triggered and complex sequences of
cues can be designed. The pro versions of QLab are also able
to control and playback video and MIDI from the same workspace. The basic audio version of Qlab is free (limited to two
output channels); expansions for multichannel audio, video,
and MIDI are very cost effective. As more and more theatres
look to expand their audio programs and provide consistent
playback and cueing for their performances, computer playback systems are becoming more and more popular, and these
two systems are widely used.
The station that was the most surprising to me and had
some of the most exciting things happening was our Surround
station. To begin with, the folks from L'Acoustics provided us with
the loudspeakers for this system. They provided four 8XTI coaxial
speakers and a SB15p subwoofer to help the
low end of the system. These speakers provided great sound for our area, and with an Avid
Protools system furnished by Drew Dalzell
from Diablo Sound, we were able to listen to
several different examples of material that had
been recorded in different surround formats.
Special thanks go to Ray Kimber and Brad
Berridge for their help in providing surround
source material. Also in the Surround station
we were fortunate to have the folks from 1602
Group showing the TiMax2 SoundHub system
and the TiMax Tracker system. The SoundHub
is a stand-alone audio platform that provides
the operator with sixteen inputs and sixteen
outputs and the ability to expand those up to
sixty-four inputs by sixty-four outputs. (EdiMeyer Sound Labs' Sim 3 analyzer and the SMAART v7.3 system from Rational Acoustics were demonstrated
tor's note: see page 51 for Alan Hardiman's
in the Testing and Measurement station. (Photo by Mike Hooker.)
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theatre design

& technology

2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2012