McPHERSON, KS – The McPherson Opera House, saved from destruction in 1986, had been home to everything from Vaudeville shows and films from the golden age of cinema through to political rallies and suffrage meetings, and through it all, it had been known for superb acoustics.
To extend that tradition, the McPherson Opera House Preservation Company "wanted a sound system that performers would find not only adequate, but impressive," according to Michael Dunn of Sounds Great Music, the designer and installer on the project – one that would provide not only good, natural sound, but achieve a look in keeping with the buildings' roots and legacy.
The refurbishment of the 1888 opera house was virtually a complete rebuild, Dunn noted. The final phase was completed in December 2009 with the installation of the venue's new lighting rig, and an audio system featuring Tannoy's compact, digitally steerable QFlex arrays.
Tannoy wasn't the first solution considered, Dunn says. But after a closer look at the initial concept, one based around a conventional line array system, with the inherent bulk and significant architectural impact that such a system would bring to the space, the benefits of QFlex swiftly became apparent.
"We started to look at the lines of sight and the 3D models the architect had, and we realized that more than half of the audience would not be covered by the traditional line array concept, and would have to be covered by additional under balcony fills."
The end result was high impact sound with a low impact visual profile, and as Holecek has noted, artists who've performed at the venue have expressed a wish to "take the theatre with them wherever they go."
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