Something For Everyone: A Front-End Upgrade Brings Versatility To The State Theatre

“Indeed, the CL5 can easily travel out front and simply be plugged in for those who want to use it in the house, and the PM10 can make the reverse trip just as effortlessly and get plugged in onstage,” he says. “Are these touring-style rigs working in a fixed install? I guess, but it’s a very short tour, and nothing has to go into a truck. Nothing has to move other than the control surfaces either. We just patch things up as we have to in each respective location via Cat-6 and we’re good to go.”

For further expandability out front, a pair of Yamaha HY144-D I/O cards were installed in the PM10’s central DSP engine. Dante compatible, the cards can support up to 144 simultaneous input and output channels at 96 kHz/32 bits, providing Weist and visiting engineers with the ability to connect with the Dante racks onstage via Cat-6 if they require more than the 96 inputs currently found on the PM10 control surface.

Continuous Evolution

The front-end upgrade follows on the heels of the installation of a new PA in 2014. Guided by Cioffi’s twin brother, the late James Cioffi, the loudspeaker build brought L-Acoustics KUDO arrays to the room.

A perspective of the theater, including the left-right L-Acoustics KUDO arrays implemented in 2014.

“KUDO’s K-Louver waveguide technology enabled us to keep the energy off the walls and on the audience, avoiding reflections,” James Cioffi said not long before his passing in 2016 at the age of 60. “The system essentially makes the room go away, the acoustics are no longer a factor. You’re just hearing the music straight through the PA.”

For his part, Weistfinds that the PM10 console represents the natural evolution of a medium he’s relied upon for decades: “This desk definitely has the sonic character or signature you’d expect, and then it takes you to another level. There’s more depth, more headroom than previous generations, and then for me, the real icing on the cake is the digital stage of the hybrid microphone preamplifier. Which, of course, features Rupert Neve’s SILK processing. SILK makes elements of your mix stand out with a three-dimensional quality.

“I still love what a PM5K can do, but this is the next step, and will have lasting power for years to come, keeping us competitive and putting on shows.”