The Crucible, part of Sheffield Theatres (in England) alongside the Lyceum and Studio that offers 980 seats located on three sides of a versatile thrust stage where no audience member is further than 22 meters away from performances, recently elected to implement new d&b Soundscape immersive technology based upon previous experience with a d&b audiotechnik system at The Lyceum.
“Our existing system was very old. It was capable but had its limitations, with the result that we regularly had to hire a lot of equipment to support some of our productions, such as large musicals,” explains John Bates, operations director for Sheffield Theatres. “d&b was chosen as a named supplier based on the system installed at the Lyceum in 2014. We couldn’t have been happier with the quality, while the support d&b had given us throughout the design period and beyond was first-rate — they are a fantastic company to work with. After close consultation, it was clear that the incredible Soundscape technology would add so many possibilities for sound design at the Crucible.”
A competitive tendering process followed, with Bradford-based specialist Pro Audio Systems (PAS) appointed to carry out the installation. PAS had been responsible for the project at the Lyceum and has since become a recognized Installation Partner of the German manufacturer.
“Pro Audio Systems had delivered excellent service at the Lyceum,” Bates continues. “Their project management team was very efficient, communicated well, and their installation staff were highly professional and always prepared to go the extra mile. They were the logical choice to take care of the installation.”
The Crucible’s technical team worked closely with Steve Jones of d&b on the system design.
Jones had also worked on the design at the Lyceum and having seen the initial proposals for the Crucible, was the first to suggest that Soundscape could deliver significant benefits to such a creative hotbed, as he explains:
“The Crucible’s team had already created a pretty good system design, but I explained that Soundscape was beginning to have a real impact in the theatre world, from The West End to Broadway,” Bates says. “The future of sound and storytelling in the theatre, in my view, is linked to a new world of immersive and spatial audio, so in order to obtain the best return on their investment, I felt that it was important that they considered what Soundscape had to offer. They were receptive to the idea and we took it from there. The ideal scenario in a theatre setting such as this is to have a system that no-one notices, where the audience perceives the sound as emanating from the performer, not from a collection of loudspeakers. The immersive nature of Soundscape does exactly that, strengthening the emotional connection between the action onstage and those watching, in a way that sounds as natural as possible.”
The Crucible’s stage and seating is based on an octagonal design built around 45 degrees. In total there are 72 amplifier channels and loudspeakers catering for the Soundscape system. d&b’s audio system processor, the DS100 Signal Engine, sits at the heart of the system, allowing for the individual placement and movement of up to 64 sound objects. A variety of loudspeakers from across the d&b range were deployed to meet the coverage requirements.
Nine flown clusters of two ALi90 augmented array loudspeakers form the main reinforcement from the stage. As well as providing high audio quality, it was a requirement that the units were as small as possible in order to avoid obstructing lighting and camera angles during the Snooker World Championships that are hosted annually at the venue. In addition, 12 E5 ( 2-way compact coaxial loudspeakers) act as front fills in an arc around the thrust-stage, with an additional 14 8S coaxial loudspeakers deployed as delays in a wider arc. An even further arc of 12 8S act as surrounds at the outer edge of the auditorium. On occasions when the theatre reduces its capacity for specific events, a curtain is drawn around the seating behind the arc of delay loudspeakers, with 10 8S loudspeakers deployed on this line as surrounds.
A cross-based L/R system located at the proscenium takes care of upstage action and effects, and comprises two Y10P loudspeakers and a pair of 10S as out fills. This cross-based system also acts as a simple L/R setup for productions that choose not to use Soundscape. Two 21S subwoofers complete the overall picture.
In addition to the Soundscape system, there were several updates to the infrastructure of the general audio system. The analog audio tie lines have been implemented into the Dante network via Ferrofish A32, allowing patching to be made via Dante controller.
To cater for visiting shows that choose not to use the Soundscape system, a combination of Powersoft Quattrocanali and d&b amplifiers have been installed. These are wired into the speaker patch-bay, allowing any of the 32 amplifier channels to be patched across a number of speaker outlets around the venue. A new LAN network for Dante was installed, with four connection points at Sound Control and at sub-stage. Netgear’s brand new M4250 AV specific switches were installed within each rack, with independent primary and secondary networks, to ensure a stable and redundant network.
Once PAS had been appointed, project manager Jake Brown worked in close collaboration with Nick Greenhill, Sheffield Theatres head of sound, to fine-tune the system specification, making suggestions and recommendations directed towards enhancing and improving system connectivity. According to Brown, the biggest challenge faced by the installation team was to fit all the new loudspeaker lines into the existing containment:
“There were 23 existing lines being repurposed from the speaker patch to fixed points for the Soundscape system, as well as the large number of additional speaker lines. To relieve capacity problems, a marshalling box was installed outside the rack room to bring back the existing lines, with new trunking installed in a straight line from this point to the new rack at the back of the room. Paul Ramsden, one of our lead technicians did a great job working in a very tight space at the back of the racks, ensuring that the wiring standards to which we aspire were fully achieved. It’s worth noting that after our earlier work at The Lyceum, the theatre adopted our rack wiring standards as a benchmark for future work.”
The installation was completed on time and on budget, with Bates noting, “The process ran smoothly from start to finish. Pro Audio Systems expertly managed some COVID-related procurement concerns connected with ancillary equipment, and d&b’s delivery was spot on time.”
