Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1970 - 10

In a theatrical situation, logistics are
usually the most neglected factor, although
they seem to take up ninety percent of the
time. Who is going to be where when? The
only item that gets more discussion is what
the actors will say on stage. When a sound
system is brought into a theatrical situation where the backstage space is limited,
an agreement must be reached between the
various departments as to who is going to
be able to occupy specific space. The situation in which sound systems and dimmer
boards operate from different parts of the
theatre is more common than not. There are
many theatres operating now on and off
Broadway where sound equipment is put in
a room that was originally a coat closet or a
bathroom and is perhaps still being used as
either one.
We have all become familiar with the
terminology of direct versus reverberant
sound. When you listen to a sound the
amount of reverberant energy is critical.
The amount of energy that comes filtering
in from mirrors, off the ceiling, even off
chairs and other people is critical. The proportion is roughly 11 to 1-of reverberant
sound versus direct. To that purpose Dr.
Bowes designed a loudspeaker system
which had one small loudspeaker facing
toward the audience, and ten others facing
away toward the wall behind. The purpose
of this was to give a pleasing and natural
orchestral rendition. We find the same situation when we go to a theatre where
8/ 10ths of the sound is thrown directly
into the audience. In terms of the effect
we desire to achieve and of circumstances
where you want the immediate effect of a
piece of music or a piece of program material, that is valid. Most often program
sound used in the theatre is used as an
accompaniment. It is not used as a prime
thing in itself. If you wanted to go to a
concert, you wou ld go to a concert. You
would not go to a theatre to hear musical
sounds if there were live actors too. The
problem in temporary situations of integrating program source so that it can seem
relevant, is also one of speaker direction.
I have seen circumstances in proscenium
auditoriums when loudspeakers are directed
at concave wall surfaces to give a larger
apparent size to the source. This gives
quite a bit of direct sound, because the
lines of reflection are reasonably direct. It
is just one bounce, but the amount of difference that this can make in an ordinary
theatre is tremendous.
When you set up a sound system in a
theatre, yOu are under pressure of time and
money. Temporary equipment always involves a very severe economic burden. It is
supposed to provide the same results as a
permanent system in the same theatre, for
a lower cost than what the permanent system would cos!. It is usually rented or on
rental purchase because it is temporary,
and this too creates quite a few problems.
The equipment is usually similar. It usually

has to be modified because portable equipment must be simple. it must be durable.
It must be standardized in the sense that
when you have a portable system you
usually have only one channel for every
function. If a device such as an amplifier or
a tape reproducer goes out, you must replace it immediately with something that
can go in without alteration. Therefore, it
is necessary to standardize all connections,
all modes of operation, all markings, and if
possible the actual gain of the device. It
would not help you to use a tape deck that
has an output level 6db higher than the one
you took out last night, because there is
usually not enough time to reset all your
sound cues. It has to work properly the
first time.

ELECTRON ICALLY
GENERATED SOUND
IN THE THEATRE
Thomas Boutilier
Columbia-Princeton Music Center
o matter how well a system is de-

Nsigned, its sound depends enti rely upon
the person operating it. When Werner Henze
took over the Ravinia Festival (where the
Chicago Symphony gives its summer concerts), he investigated a problem of years'
standing. People had been complaining for
years that they could not hear anything.
He made some inquiries, got in touch with
the person who ran the Festival, and asked
him what principle he used. The man replied that when his hearing aid began to
buzz he would turn down the gain. He had
been appointed by the Chicago Park District
Commission. A deaf man had been running
the sound system for the summer festivals
of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for
years, and nobody bothered to find it out
until a new conductor came in for the
series.
There has been a considerable blurring
of definitions in recent years. If anything
coming out of a loud speaker is electronically generated sound, then a tape of your
Aunt Mildred singing Happy Birthday to You
is electronically generated sound. The number of people involved in multi-media must
be held guilty for such a blurring of distinctions. In terms of composition, there are
two basic distinctions between electronic
music and basic composition music. In electronic music the basic source material comes
from oscillators, generators, and a variety
of electronic devices. Tape, in this case,
can often be merely a storage medium.
One system, developed first in France, at
the end of the second World War, recorded sounds out of the air, putting them

on tape, and then processed them in the
studio with a variety of different devices;
including ring modulators, filters, or reverberators. Again, to a certain extent,
some of this can be done live. However,
the amount of manipulation possible in a
live concert is severely limited. This is one
great advantage of tape. You can manipulate the knobs and then pick out the best
thing that happens. If, however, you are of
a compositional school where whatever happens is all right, it really doesn't make that
much difference.
Frequency range is restricted in theatre
systems because of speech intelligibility.
There is base cut off and a great deal of
treble cut off. In reproducing recordings of
a particular performance, this doesn't prove
a difficulty, but in working with electronic
music, you can deal with fundamentals higher
and lower than you could achieve on a piano, or any other conventional instrument.
One of the merits of electronic music
has been the fact that the sort of sounds
we could produce had no built-in ready-made
associations. Everybody has a set of associations of what a trumpet means, or a violin. The ability to produce sounds which
had not yet been experienced gave us an
opportunity to work in a new way. Unfortunately, too many of the effects have been
preempted by science fiction movies, and
a great deal more thought has to be given
to the production of a score now, than was
given five or six years ago.
There are many more things that we
could do with sound in the theatre. Unfortunately, sound is the first place that the
budget is cut. Our only chances now are
with home systems and worlds fairs, where
people finally decide that they can do something great with sound, and they budget for
it. I hope that all of you can do something
in that direction in the future.

THE FUTU RE OF
ELECTRONICS IN THEATER
Charles R. Boner
C. P. Boner and Associates,

Austin, Texas
hile the future of electronic systems in
the theatre will depend to a great extent on equalization and the excellence
thereof, there is another factor which has
been touched upon this morning which is
still more important: It is the system operation problem. In most theatres, this is a
problem of gigantic proportions. You would
not believe the attitude of people in general
to sound systems and how they should
work.

@!ITO THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

OCTOBER,1970

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1970