January 14th 2022
New Sound Mixing Console
After a couple of Covid-affected years where productions have had to relocate to outdoors or online, it has been fantastic to feel that we have begun to once again ramp up the number of plays, concerts and recitals which take place in the Theatre through the school year. One particular event on the horizon for boys in Year 7 is the school musical of 'Annie' (or (D)Annie!) which will have four performance nights just before Easter.
As with many of our musicals over the past few years, we will have a live band accompanying the cast each night, and to give more opportunities a number of the roles have been 'doubled' which means two boys will share the duties of performing.
Alongside the on-stage work, lots of effort goes into the costumes and set as well as making the best use of the sound and lighting equipment available to us in the Theatre.
One piece of tech that we have been looking to modernise for a few years has been our sound mixing desk which allows the user to control all of the various microphones, speakers and instruments which may be in use during a performance. Our old console was very large and was installed in the mid-noughties when the Theatre was first fitted out. While fifteen years may not feel like a very long time ago for some of us (I'm still unsettled by the idea that the original Lion King film is closer in age to the moon landing than present day), the idea of using a laptop or phone from 2004 would be slightly impractical!
So we are delighted to have installed a fabulous new and updated sound mixing desk on the theatre balcony. As well as allowing sound controllers to mix levels for multiple sound sources - something which will be particularly challenging for 'Annie!' when we will have individual microphones, group microphones and instruments all vying to be the loudest in the room - we also will be able to pre-set and save sound arrangements. This will save significant time before performances since the sound will be as simple as turning on the desk and plugging in the right cables!
A huge thank you to the Parents Association for providing the funds for such a much-needed upgrade.
