The Village Theater, located in historic downtown Danville, California, has been a community fixture for more than 150 years. Originally built as a barn, it has served as many things, including a movie theater. When the city purchased the venue in 1987, it opened its doors as a performing arts theater for the community.
The city leaders recently decided it was time to remodel the interior and upgrade the sound system. They contacted Leo’s Professional Audio of Oakland, to design and install a new system for the room. Graham Cooper, vice president of the contracting division at Leo’s Professional Audio, headed up the team.
“The existing sound system was at least 30 years old and although serviceable at the time, was in serious need of replacement,” explains Cooper. “The city wanted a system commensurate with the quality of performances the theater offers.”
In order to better design the new system, Cooper worked with Rocky Giannetti from Perform Acoustics to create a room model and specific speakers coordinates.
Once coverage was determined, Cooper ultimately specified an exploded center cluster of three Tannoy VX 8 along with two suspended Tannoy VS15BP subwoofers. Two VX 12 loudspeakers, hung left- right, were set up in stereo with a stereo wash feed. All of the loudspeakers were hung on a ceiling mounted truss custom designed by Gordon Fava, tech designer at Leo’s Pro Audio.
Tannoy VX 8 loudspeakers are loaded with an 8-inch Dual Concentric full-range driver and deliver a peak output of 119 dB. The tightly controlled 90-degree horizontal dispersion pattern provides excellent placement flexibility by allowing vertical or horizontal mounting .
The two Tannoy VS 15BP subwoofers are compact, efficient bandpass subwoofers designed to extend the low-frequency response of the VX loudspeakers. The VS 15BP consists of one high efficiency 15-inch and a 3-inch voice coil drive unit mounted in a compact cabinet. Placed strategically between the VX loudspeakers, they provide the low end the system requires.
The pair of VX12s hung to the left and right of the stage provide the same 90-degree coverage pattern but are loaded with a 12-inch Dual Concentric full-range driver that provides a peak output of 126 dB.
“The client is extremely pleased with the new system,” adds Cooper. “The theater is busy year round with a variety of events and the Tannoy loudspeakers do a terrific job for all of them – from movies and plays to acoustic sets and rock-n-roll bands.”
The 245-seat seat house is set up in typical theater fashion with graded seating on the main level and in the tiered/balcony area. Two more ceiling-mounted VX8 loudspeakers provide delayed coverage to balcony.
The system is powered by lab.guppen C Series amplifiers. A four-channel C 16:4 powers the VX8 loudspeakers with a four-channel C 28:4 taking care of the two VX12s and two VS15BP Subwoofers. All of the amplifiers are rack mounted at the FOH booth centered in the rear of the upper balcony.
The FOH booth is also equipped with a 24-channel Allen & Heath GL2400 analog console. A Rane HAL1 procesor provides system EQ, sub crossover, the delay for the balcony speakers and the L/R stereo feeds. Cooper specified a pair of JBL LSR2325 monitor speakers for FOH so that an engineer could better monitor the main mix. A discretely placed crowd microphone also provides a direct feed to the FOH booth so that the engineer can listen to the audience reaction and make any adjustments necessary.
