A recent sound reinforcement update at the Stadium Theatre, which opened during the Vaudeville era in the mid-1920s in Woonsocket, RI, incorporates HARMAN Professional components that include JBL loudspeakers driven by Crown power amplifiers in a project designed and installed by integration firm All Tech Sound.
Owned and operated since 1996 by the non-profit Stadium Theatre Foundation, the venue is in its 25th year of enovations to both restore its historic architecture and update the technology to better suit modern performances. The foundation worked with Jeff Hansen of All Tech Sound to select and implement a range of VTX Series loudspeakers — including VTX A8 line arrays — and Crown I-Tech Series amplifiers.
“The Stadium, being an old theater, had an old point source system that was adequate for what we did at the time,” said Dennis Tancrell, technical director, Stadium Theatre Foundation. “As we started booking bigger and better shows and national touring acts, we realized that it was time to bring in a permanent line array system. We worked with All Tech Sound in the past to bring in a JBL VerTec system, but that involved volunteers every Friday ground stacking massive cabinets that weighed 130 pounds over and over again. When the opportunity came to try out the A8s in our venue, Jeff coordinated with sales guys and got us a rig for a weekend. We needed to have the rig fit in the very tight space on each side of the proscenium. and the A8s worked perfectly for that.”
Hanson adds, “They had been looking for something that would fit the atmosphere of the room for a while, and some of the other bigger boxes just wouldn’t have worked. When the A8s came along, we brought a system in and it sounded phenomenal. We got beautiful coverage right to the back of the room when we calibrated and tuned the final installation. The spread is phenomenal, and it sounds great.”
VTX B18 and B28 subwoofers bolster the low end, with AC16 compact loudspeakers deliver dedicated front fill coverage. Stage monitoring is suppled by VTX M20 loudspeakers.
“The good thing about the VTX subs is that we were able to fly them where we weren’t able to in the past thanks to their size and weight,” Hansen says. “Whenever we did ground stacks before, they would impede sight lines and get in the way and not look very nice, especially in the Vaudeville theater. So the advantage of being able to fly half of the subs and keep them out of the way was a great advantage, and we’ve actually built platforms off to the side so the ground subs can be out of the sight lines and still give you enough oomph when needed for the bigger acts. For the front fills, we wanted something that would blend in and be as unobtrusive as possible but still provide high quality sound, and the AC16s are nice and slim and have a good tone to them, so they fit perfectly.”
The Crown I-Tech 12000HD and four-channel I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers providing the audio power are loaded with BSS OMNIDRIVEHD processing engines, linear phase FIR filters and LevelMAX limiters.
Tancrell praised the A8 in particular: “We do a lot of top-notch tribute shows, and one night this band convinced me to use their big traveling rig. I fell in love with that system, but what I didn’t fall in love with was the price tag. As a non-profit, there was no way we could have ever afforded that, and it just wouldn’t have fit in the space. But that same touring band came back this year and don’t you know what they’re traveling with now? They’re traveling with the A8s, and it sounds just as good.”
