BREA, CA – Stagelight Family Productions, a non-profit theatre organization, uses large casts for musicals with non-professional actors drawn from the community. Projecting a performer’s voice is an ongoing challenge, so the group recently invested in a new wireless microphone setup from Lectrosonics. TheatreSHOTS was brought in to assist Stagelight Family Productions with its recent production of the Beauty and the Beast. Bill Warshaw, who with his wife Diane operates TheatreSHOTS, discussed the audio challenges the community theatre group was experiencing.
“Stagelight had been using an older, low end system,” Warshaw said, “and its sometimes erratic performance, combined with the new FCC regulations, spurred us to revisit our wireless situation. As we considered the wireless system attributes that mattered most to the organization, we determined that drop out free performance and durability was high on our list of priorities. With children performers, robust build quality was particularly important. We also wanted our new system to be compact and easy to transport. My research led to Lectrosonics as the best value proposition for the step up we were after.”
Stagelight Family Productions started a fundraiser in May with the goal of fully replacing its antiquated equipment. The group then purchased a single Lectrosonics Venue receiver system fully stocked with six VRS receiver modules and accompanied by six Lectrosonics LMa beltpack transmitters. This new equipment uses Lectrosonics’ Digital Hybrid Wireless technology, which features a proprietary algorithm to encode 24-bit digital audio information with no compression and low distortion into an analog format that can be transmitted in a robust manner over an analog FM wireless link. Countryman E6i headset microphones are used in tandem with the new Lectrosonics system.
“The new wireless system has been a dramatic step up for Stagelight,” said Warshaw. “The Lectrosonics equipment is built rock solid and we’ve experienced a noticeable improvement in performance. Equally important is the frequency agile nature of the new equipment. Since we stage productions at multiple venues, the ability to easily configure the best frequencies for any particular location is a huge plus.”
“I’ve also been extremely impressed with the effectiveness of the DSP-based dual band limiters on the LMa transmitters,” Warshaw added. “Our less experienced performers would sometimes exhibit huge dynamic range in their vocal projection, resulting in distortion with the old system when they hit maximum volume. With the new Lectrosonics gear, we can dial in the packs for the best overall vocal range and let the LMa limiters cleanly handle any ‘shouting’ when an actor gets a bit too excited.
“Lectrosonics helped guide us with frequency bank selection for our area, and offered to assist with frequency coordination any time we need it. I’ve taken the company up on this offer several times now and really appreciate the assistance,” Warshaw added.
“Our production of Beauty and the Beast was a big hit, with eighteen sold out performances. The six new Lectrosonics channels performed wonderfully, and the clarity of the actors using the LMa/Countryman combination was noticeably improved when compared to a few remaining actors outfitted with the older system. Lectrosonics’ sound, reliability, and build quality was exactly what we were after.”
For more information, please visit www.lectrosonics.com.
