Built in 1928 and restored back to its original design by Paramount in the early 2000s, the historic Tennessee Theatre provides entertainment to Knoxville and the surrounding communities. From Broadway productions and movies, to concerts, organ recitals, and opera performances, rental opportunities for the 1,600-seat theatre and 500-standing capacity grand lobby are also available.
Knoxville’s ML Sound live sound rental and contracting company, was brought in to upgrade the theatre’s audio system, installing a Yamaha CL5 digital audio console and Rio3224-D input/output box.
The new console will be used for front of house and monitor mixing. “The existing analog console had been in service for over 12 years,” states Lawrence Bricknell, project manager at ML Sound. “The new Yamaha console is the first step in a program to bring the theatre’s technology up-to-date and onto a digital platform.”
Tom Kelly, house audio engineer at the Tennessee Theatre and technical director at the Mill & Mine music venue says, “The new Yamaha console is a perfect fit for the theatre. The CL5 is easy to operate. We also have the same console at the Mill & Mine. The Scene Recall feature is very handy for us since we have various types of shows here with different operators. We simply recall the scene for the show we are staging; for example, we have scenes set up for rock shows, musicals, and even one for movie night, and it works out great.”
Kelly says that since they do not have a monitor console, it helps that the crew can grab an iPad and walk onto the stage to tweak the monitor mixes.
“Sonically, the console sounds awesome. Also, the Yamaha CL5 has gained us a lot more room at front of house, replacing a nearly eight-foot Soundcraft MH4 and two equipment racks with just the four-foot CL5. Since we share the front of house booth with the lighting engineer, he is really happy about the increase in space as well.”
