Despite its 130 year age and mix of historic architectural styles, the Czech Republic’s Mahen Theatre has always been at the forefront of technology. Now it has again embraced the latest ideas with the installation of a full Yamaha DME-based Ethersound network, complementing its existing Yamaha digital mixing consoles.
One of Austria’s most celebrated theatres, Schauspielhaus Graz (the Graz Playhouse) has a history that is every bit as tempestuous as some of the Shakespearean plays it stages. Recently it has undergone a major technical upgrade, which has seen its inventory of Yamaha audio equipment considerably increased.
2011 marked the debut of Sir Trevor Nunn as Artistic Director of London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with four very different productions. Sound design for all four was by Paul Groothuis, who used Yamaha digital consoles and DME series digital mixing engines to help ensure the season’s success.
Having lacked a multi-purpose live entertainment venue for many years, the patience of the 176,000 residents of Besançon, eastern France, was rewarded this year with the opening of La Rodia. Featuring two concert halls, a lobby bar, two studios and information / multimedia resources, a Yamaha digital audio system ensures that all of the new facility’s users - whether local amateurs or international stars - get a universally high standard of sound.
Hungary is currently seeing major investment in state-of-the-art entertainment and corporate venues. After the €22m Kodály Centre in Pécs, which features a major Yamaha audio installation, comes another multi-million Euro venue, the RaM Colosseum in the country’s capital Budapest. Here Yamaha audio equipment also hits the right note.
The Hexagon in Reading is one of the Thames Valley’s principal theatres, its catchment area covering the wide commuter belt west of London. A recent upgrade to its audio system has seen the installation of a Yamaha M7CL-48ES digital console and three SB168-ES stage boxes.
Along with a certain high profile wedding, Westminster Abbey’s installation of Yamaha DME series digital mixing engines was a significant event in the spring of this year. But that’s not the only new Yamaha installation in the area, as Central Hall Westminster is now home to an LS9 digital mixing console.
Since opening its doors in 1981, the Blue Note in New York City has become one of the world’s premier jazz clubs, playing host to some of the genre’s greatest musicians. Jazz is renowned for its variation between strident and quiet, intricate pieces so, when the venue’s audio system needed to be upgraded, Yamaha’s TXn amplifiers were the perfect choice.
When one of Slovenia’s premier theatres was looking to replace an existing analogue mixing console with a digital version, the venue’s technical team had a long list of requirements that the new desk had to fulfil. Thanks to its flexibility and ease of use, a Yamaha M7CL-32 was the ideal solution.
The culmination of the Hungarian city of Pécs 2010 tenure as a European Capital of Culture was December’s opening of the Kodály Centre, a brand new, multi-million euro concert and conference venue. A major Yamaha audio installation ensures that all users get the very best from its highly specified facilities.
The summer of 2010 has seen the reopening of Europe’s largest open air theatre in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Late July saw the 6,500-capacity venue’s gala opening concert, which featured opera legends Jose Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, plus a trio of Yamaha M7CL mixing consoles playing a starring role.
A second digital audio system installed at the prestigious Merano venue.
Located in the 18th century Cornmarket House in central Wexford, in the south-east corner of the Republic of Ireland, Wexford Arts Centre has been providing a wide range of contemporary art and entertainment for locals and visitors since 1974. Recently, the 120-seat main auditorium had a major technical refit, at the heart of which is a Yamaha LS9-32 mixing console.
Dublin’s National Concert Hall (An Ceoláras Náisiúnta) is the premier venue in Ireland for classical concerts and also the home of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. Recently, its long-serving analogue Yamaha PM5000 mixing console was replaced with a digital PM5D-RH, which had to be installed in just one night.
The scenic Sternschanze district in Hamburg is a lively, colourful and cosmopolitan old quarter of the city. Its crooked cobblestone streets are lined with numerous pubs, taverns, restaurants and cultural institutions. Right in the heart of the 'Schanze', as the residents call their little world, the pretty "Delphi Showpalast" with its roughly 400 seats has been presenting musicals for the past 15 years and has acquired a definite cult status. Visitors flock here from all over Northern Germany to be entertained by the cheeky shows in the Delphi's wonderfully personal atmosphere.
Owned by Danish national broadcaster DR and costing over US$300m, the brand new DR Konserthuset is one of the most expensive live music venues ever built. A state-of-the-art facility which offers four performance halls and a home to the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, it features cutting-edge technical and acoustic specifications.
One of Denmark’s most iconic cultural venues, the Opera House (Operaen) in Copenhagen is a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art concert venue which opened in 2000. But, though huge resources were put into the venue’s acoustics, it has taken a unique Yamaha digital mixing engine installation to get the perfect result for performers.
The Yamaha LS9 digital console continues to be a huge success in regional theatres across Europe. Combining ease of use, reliability and a feature set unrivalled at its low price point, the LS9 is making life less stressful and more intuitively creative for an ever-growing band of sound technicians. One of the latest UK venues to adopt it is Scotland’s Adam Smith Theatre.
When it comes to businessmen, those that invest wisely for the benefit of their employees and others are invariably regarded very well. In Italy, Cashmere magnate Brunello Cucinelli is firmly of this breed, a focal point of whose philanthropism is his sympathetic restoration and development of the historic medieval village of Solomeo, near Perugia.
Taking a wildly successful Australian film about two drag queens and a transsexual driving across the Australian outback in a bus, including 25 big show songs and taking it to the stage is a challenge definitely not for the faint hearted. But with Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical, this is exactly what production company Back Row productions has achieved. Receiving rave reviews, Yamaha digital consoles are helping to ensure that Priscilla is also queen of the London stage.
Rare is the opportunity that a major British city has the chance to design and build a brand new, state of the art theatre. But that’s precisely what has happened with Curve Theatre in Leicester, a venue that has made many headlines because the ability for those outside to see straight into the foyer, auditorium and main stage through the building’s vast glass frontage.
With two leading characters cast via a primetime reality television show, audience expectations of the new West End production of musical Oliver! were perhaps higher than for any other theatre show in history. But with three Yamaha digital consoles and a DME64N digital mix engine at front of house, sound designer Paul Groothuis and his associate John Owens have made sure that nobody will be disappointed.
When faced with designing a challenging audio system for a challenging play, sound designer Gareth Fry turned to Yamaha’s M7CL digital mixing console as the ideal solution. And with the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Sound Design now safely in his grasp, he obviously made the right decision.
With digital audio evolving so quickly, audience expectations of what can be achieved in live and installed sound are rising at a similar rate. Experience of 7.1 home surround systems, superclubs and large scale West End productions means that, when it comes to regional theatre venues, audiences are no longer prepared to accept what they may feel is second best.
For 22 years, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera has been wowing audiences at London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. But sound technology has seen many advances in that time and May 2008 saw a technical refit of the show featuring an all-new audio system, with a Yamaha PM1D digital console at front of house.
The building of any new theatre is a matter for celebration by the performing arts industry. And when it is equipped with cutting edge Yamaha digital audio facilities, artists and audiences alike have a great deal to be pleased about.
After a two year refurbishment, the Theatre des Louvrais in the city of Pontoise, 17 miles northwest of Paris, is open for business once again. And, to ensure that audiences enjoy ultimate quality sound, Yamaha equipment is at the heart of its brand new audio system.
Built in 1884, Northampton’s Royal Theatre was designed by the renowned Victorian theatre architect C J Phipps, who also designed such prestigious venues as the Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Royal Glasgow and Edinburgh’s Lyceum.
The issue of sound reinforcement for opera and classical music is still a rather thorny one with many aficionados of those art forms. So how do you approach providing the best quality sound reinforcement in one of the word’s most historic and architecturally delicate opera venues? You ask Yamaha to help.
The history of Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre (or Dramaten) is a long and complex one. Originally established by King Gustav III in 1788, after an eventful 120 years the theatre moved to its present home in 1908, the Art Nouveau building in Nybroplan, Stockholm. Since then, Dramaten has gone from strength to strength and recently its six stages (five in house, one at the satellite Östermalm site) had a major refit with Yamaha equipment, giving audiences at this most historic venue all the benefits of a 21st century audio experience.
It was back in the autumn of 2000 that a pre-production model of Yamaha’s PM1D digital mixing console quietly made its way out of the Brixton offices of sound rental company Orbital and headed to London EC1.
You can forget everything you know about sound installations with a clear conscience. An acoustic engineer from the renowned Wroclaw University of Technology and a sound engineer from the equally reputed audio company M.Ostrowski are breaking new ground with the installation of a new PA system in the Wroclaw opera house: a system that has about as much in common with conventional PA systems as the Starship Enterprise has with the first flying machines.
The destruction of the old Price circus left a gap in Madrid and in Spain until last Christmas when a new
combined circus and theatre house, equipped with the latest state of the art audio facilities opened in the city.
This new venue marks Madrid out as being one of the few capital cities in the world to have such a dedicated
multi-functional cultural building boasting one of the biggest stage enclosures in Europe.
Spring 2007 has seen London’s internationally acclaimed Young Vic theatre reopening after a major three year redevelopment project. Integral to the rebuilding of the theatre premises has been a radical overhaul of the backstage and technical facilities, which includes a Yamaha M7CL-48 installed as the main front of house console.
Breathtaking artistry is part and parcel of everyday life at the four GOP-Varieté theatres in Germany. While one artist performs an unbelievable balancing act by executing a one-handed hand stand on an enormous, rapidly rotating steel cube, the body of another hangs suspended five metres up - her only support a metal pole extending vertically into the cyclorama that she somehow manages to hold on to with her feet. And all the time she's smiling, just as if she were enjoying a relaxing cup of tea with her best friend.
Situated in the heart of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm Stadsteatern (City Theatre) is a major centre for the country’s performing arts.
The statistics of Stadsteatern make impressive reading. The complex has eight separate performance spaces - seven in-house and another a short distance away. It puts on around 40 performances per week to a yearly audience of half a million. It also stages an average of 35 new productions per year and employs over a dozen full-time sound engineers, plus several multi-skilled engineers who work with the sound department.
Eight months of painstaking renovation successfully completed!
The renovation of the Victoria Hall in the Swiss city of Geneva has taken almost 9 months. The hall, which was built between 1891 and 1894 by Geneva-based architect John Camoletti, was renovated at a cost of around six million Euros. The Hall's name can be traced backed to Sir Daniel Barton, who as the British Consul at the time dedicated this magnificent concert hall, which is still famed for its excellent acoustics, to Queen Victoria (1819-1901). Even today, the British classics label Decca still uses the hall for concert recordings because of its fantastic acoustic properties.
The West Midlands town of Tamworth has recently gained a brand new music venue, thanks to a local businessman who bought the long-closed Palace Cinema and invested £1 million in giving the venue a major refit.
Designed in the 1960s and constructed in the 1970s, the Barbican Centre was opened on 3 March 1982 by Her Majesty the Queen who described it as 'one of the wonders of the modern world'. Owned, funded and managed by the Corporation of London, the third largest sponsor of the arts in the UK, it was built as 'the City's gift to the nation' at an historical capital cost of £161million, equivalent to almost £400 million today.
BUENA PARK, Calif. — The last make-over for the 84-year-old Independence Memorial Hall was 1979. In recent years, audiences had registered complaints about the sound system that ranged from "too loud" to "couldn't hear."
After more than five years of construction and a total investment of €65 million, the region of San Lorenzo Del Escorial in Spain has opened its new theatre complex. With a main hall of 1,200 seats – surpassed in capacity only by the Teatro Real in Madrid – and another theatre with room for up to 300 audience members the complex is a showcase of all that is excellent in theatre design.
Following its successful launch at PLASA 2005, Yamaha’s latest, ground-breaking digital mixing console, the M7CL has gone from strength to strength. The desk, available in either 48 or 32 channel versions, both incorporating Centralogic™ touch screen technology for ease of use, is receiving fulsome praise from dealers, hire companies and end users in equal measures.
Lille has undergone enormous changes over the last ten years. Apart from the Euralille business district, which is built around the new TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) station, there is also the new conference centre, the Grand Palais, a massive structure located on the other side of the ring road. Its three main auditoriums are equipped with Yamaha digital consoles: PM5D, 02R96, 01V96.
BUENA PARK, Calif. — The Old Town Temecula Community Theater is a study in contrasts, both inside and out. On the outside, new construction blends with the "Old West" feel of Main Street in Old Town Temecula, a meticulously restored, circa 1860s section of the city, complete with hitching posts. As a valuable community resource, the theater is home to non-stop performances and special events, from professional touring acts to local recitals. The theater's grand opening in early October 2005 featured a concert by Melissa Manchester, and provided sponsors and theater supporters the first glimpse at the new city-funded facility.
Optical transmission system for Yamaha professional audio equipment and Cirrus Logic’s CobraNet™ adopted for the 2005 World Exposition Aichi.
2005/02 - The original building which housed the Deutsches Theater was constructed in 1850. The Deutsches Theater dramatic society was founded in 1883 by Adolph L'Arronge. During its association with the world-famous director Max Reinhardt, the Deutsches Theater acquired its reputation as the top theatre in Germany.
A group of seven theatres within the confines of greater Copenhagen constitute the members of the Copenhagen Theatre Society (CTS); four of them have recently invested in new house audio consoles, and all have elected to venture down the Yamaha Digital route. Making the digital commitment is not so unusual in this day and age, but why simultaneously, and what prompted them all to select the same manufacturer?
A Yamaha PM1D for recording and sound management at Venice’s legendary opera theatre.
Considering the appalling tragedy that took place in Madrid earlier this year, the event that is Forum Barcelona 2004 is a timely reminder that Spain offers a very different perspective on the world from that of the terrorists.
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (USA) installed a Yamaha PM1D system to update the sound system in this historic venue.
07/2004 - Lawrence White has only been head of sound at Cork Opera since December 03, yet already his influence is profound.
06/2004 - NEW YORK—Yamaha Commercial Audio announces the delivery of the first PM5000 mixing console to New York’s Carnegie Hall for use in the newly-opened Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall. Set up in “black box” style and located under the main structure, the 650-seat venue serves as a multi-purpose facility dedicated to non-traditional productions, modern and experimental music, performance arts, private parties and banquets.
06/2004 - NEW YORK—Designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, the Walt Disney Concert Hall was created to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated and visually stunning concert halls in the world. The Disney complex includes two outdoor amphitheaters plus a space for pre-concert events, and was made possible through the vision and generosity of Lillian Disney, the Disney family, individuals and corporations.
05/2003 - Theatre Clwyd’s rolling policy of equipment upgrade to service its growing roster of tours, has continued with the purchase of their second Yamaha DM2000 digital mixing desk from Shepperton-based suppliers, Marquee Audio.
05/2003 - A resounding message has been sent out to the industry by Orbital Sound after purchasing their fifth Yamaha digital PM1D mixing console from dealers, Marquee Audio.
03/2003 - Muted in its promotion, but widely regarded as one of Europe’s most successful Expo’s to date, Swiss Expo 02 featured pavillions of outstanding architectural merit, incredibly thought provoking content, and some thrilling applications of the very latest technology.
