The Bloomsbury Theatre, part of University College London (UCL), recently reopened its doors following a renovation project to update its main auditorium that now has more than 500 seats as well as a new sound reinforcement system utilizing EM Acoustics HALO-C loudspeakers in a design and installation by theatre specialists Autograph Sound (London).
Autograph’s Adam Broom explains: “There’s a bit of a back story here given that we in fact supplied the system before the renovation. As it made no sense to replace a system that had only just been replaced, it went into storage. Julian Brooks was appointed Technical Manager of The Bloomsbury in 2019 and he soon realized that the system needed some expertise to realize its full potential.”
Having worked with both Autograph and Broom in the past, Brooks turned to them again on this project. “The HALO-C system was specified originally for live music and stand-up but the diversity of our programme means we really needed a bit more flexibility,” says Brooks. “Also, post-refurb the room was acoustically different and so I called upon Adam for assistance, to improve the capabilities and tuning of our system to handle musical theatre, commercial productions, student shows (as part of the theatre’s connection with UCL) and pretty much anything else we might be asked to do.”
Broom adds, “It was the perfect opportunity to look at the system design again with fresh eyes based on the programme of events the venue caters for in a season, which had definitely evolved since the original system design. We predicted the space in EASE, re-hung and re-tuned the PA, added a pair of EMS-126s, and upgraded the system processing to Q-SYS as it offers a more flexible and unified control platform that suits the venue’s mixed program and changing technical staff.”
The left-center-right system comprises three HALO-C per side for the stalls and a center cluster of seven HALO-C supplemented by an EMS-118 sub per side. In addition, four EMS-61s serve as front fills, two EMS-126s serve as the circle L/R system, and a further two EMS-81Xs handle circle fills.
“The combination of Autograph’s experience and EM’s loudspeakers has allowed us to achieve what we set out to do,” concludes Brooks. “It’s simple and easy to use while retaining the flexibility to change things if we need to.”
