MERCERBURG, PA – For the 600-seat Simon Theater within Burgin Center for the Arts, a 65,500 square-foot facility at Mercerburg Academy, Northern Sound & Light (NSL) provide Shure ULX series transmitters and receivers, and Countryman B3 lavalier microphones. Steve Crick, the college prep school’s director of technical theatre, credited NSL for the help with the audio upgrade, which enhanced a recent production of Legally Blonde.
More details from Northern Sound & Light (www.northernsound.net):
Northern Sound & Light (NSL), a nationally recognized pro audio and lighting dealer based in the Pittsburgh area, recently completed a sale to Mercersburg Academy, a college-preparatory boarding school. NSL sold a wireless system centered around Shure ULX series transmitters and receivers, and Countryman B3 lavalier microphones for the Burgin Center for the Arts, a 65,500 square-foot facility that includes the 600-seat Simon Theater.
Steve Crick, the Director of Technical Theatre at Mercersburg, is thrilled with the new system, having just debuted it in their production of the musical “Legally Blonde.” Crick noted that everyone, from theatre staff to audience members, noticed a huge difference in the sound compared to previous productions, praising the absence of dropouts, connector noise and the clarity and quality of the sound in the new system. “My audio engineer was thrilled with the convenience and ease of using the new equipment, and the fact that he could concentrate on the mix, rather than on troubleshooting and compensating for uncooperative wireless components.”
Crick has worked with the dealer in the past and cites the ease of working with NSL, their competitive pricing and their wide range of product lines as reasons for using them for this sale. There were also some technical challenges with the frequency bands of the Shure wireless mics, and NSL was helpful in resolving the issues. The number of receivers used – (24) ULX1 transmitters and (12) ULXP4D dual receivers – meant having to spread the channels across two frequency bands and NSL interfaced with Shure to help coordinate the best frequency options.
The new sound system required drop-shipments from different manufacturers, shipments directly from NSL, and time was of the essence, as one of Mercersburg’s two major theatre productions was barely a month away from the time of the sound equipment purchase. Crick commends NSL’s helpful staff, saying they “did a great job keeping me informed about the status of all the pieces, and helping me track all of the components as they were shipped.”
