The Paradise Theatre in New York is both an architectural and musical icon. A registered landmark with ornate statuary and gilding that seats 3,785 patrons and plays host to performers of all genres, the Paradise required a speaker system befitting their grand space. They found one in D.A.S. Audio catalog.
Fernando Garcia of AVS Production Group, the Bronx, NY-based production company, was instrumental in specifying and erecting the system. He shared his thoughts on the challenges of the room as well as his reasons for selecting the D.A.S. Audio equipment.
“The challenge of correcting the sound system was complicated by the ornate nature of the hall,” he stated.
“We originally envisioned a line array system where all the elements were flown and the individual boxes were pinned to provide coverage both in the balcony and on the main floor.
“We were limited, however, in terms of the weight we could hang without modifications to the ceiling area, which was ruled out because of aesthetic considerations. As a result, the solution to provide the most uniform coverage was a combination of flown and ground stacked loudspeakers.”
The Paradise Theater’s loudspeaker setup consists of twenty D.A.S. Audio Aero 50 large format, 3-way line array modules plus another four Aero 12A 2-way, compact, mid-high line array elements.
During the installation of the new sound reinforcement system, which occurred last November, Garcia was impressed not just with the sonic performance of the D.A.S. Audio equipment, but also with the company’s technical support services and the hardware.
“Right from the start,” Garcia reports, “the D.A.S. team was extremely helpful. They assisted with the modeling of the loudspeakers, which was performed with EASE Focus, and were of great help responding to the various questions I had.”
“As I mentioned previously,” he Garcia said, “the theater’s architecture limited the amount of weight we could fly, and this is where the Aero 50’s flyware became a tremendous asset in helping us address this issue. The D.A.S. bumper used to fly the Aero 50’s is surprisingly small and light compared to many systems from competing manufacturers. This helped tremendously, as we had no issues raising the cluster up to the height we wanted.”
With the sound system operational for the past several months, Garcia reports positive results on all fronts. “The sound quality of this equipment is excellent right out of the box—these enclosures are really flat, so they simply don’t need much tweaking” he said.
“While we have equalization available, I find that we use it very sparingly. We’re now experiencing even coverage throughout all areas of the theater and speech intelligibility is first rate. Best of all, we don’t need to blast the system in order to fill the room.”
“We work with SPLs that are appropriate to the nature of the act and the size of the audience. When we need to raise the levels, we have plenty of headroom to work with. Everyone offers compliments on the system’s performance.”
