HAGERSTOWN, MD—The Maryland Theatre, an historic 1915 venue known for its acoustics, has installed an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system as part of an audio upgrade undertaken by BDI Sound.
“I recommended an iLive system, comprising the iDR10 MixRack and a compact iLive-80 Control Surface for a number of reasons,” said BDI’s Brian Marquiss. “It operates almost like an analog board, making the transition to digital very easy, and iLive is fully-featured and self-contained, so there’s no need for outboard processing gear. The system also uses Cat5 cable as a digital snake; for an historic building like this where running new conduit is not an option that was really important.”
“Our system was old and we needed a modern mixer, not just for running the shows but to help us teach theatre tech to the arts students that we host,” said Jenni Hatcher, executive director of Maryland Theatre. “Buying a new mixer first provides the most benefit, both for improved sound quality and in what we can offer to the community. The iLive system will make further upgrades to the audio system that much easier.”
The transition to digital promised to be a challenge for the Theatre’s tech director, Mickey O’Brien. “I had never used a digital board before, but iLive is really easy to learn,” he said. “The folks from Allen & Heath came in and gave me a demo, then left the board with me for a couple of weeks and I just taught myself.”
Installation took a day, and mainly involved running a pair of Cat5 cables through the existing infrastructure. To ensure flexibility for any future needs, Marquiss set up the system with a full set of 48 inputs and 32 outputs in the iDR10 rack. With iLive’s 64×32 Rack Extra DSP engine, the theatre was able to retire its rack of outboard effects and use the processing power of the iLive system.
The sonic benefits proved considerable as well. Using the DCAs, the system is set up with one output for the JBL mains and another for the EV speakers in the balcony for easy system control.
“We were amazed at how much better our old speaker systems sound with iLive in place,” said O’Brien. “There’s no noise, and the sound is really rich and warm. Everybody noticed it as soon as we installed the system.”
One of O’Brien’s favorite features is the ability to save scenes for later recall, making many productions much simpler.
“I’m still learning, but I’ve been incorporating effects into shows that I never could before. We have a lot of shows that play here once a year, so I’m saving their programs and building a library of scenes so that the next time they come in we’ll be ready to go.” he said.
For more information, please visit: www.ilive-digital.com.
