Pilbeam Theatre installs Electro Voice PA
Rockhampton’s Pilbeam Theatre is one of the finest theatres in regional Australia and is the focal point for the performing arts in Central Queensland. It offers a diverse range of productions all year round from the best local, national and international entertainers. Pilbeam Theatre is owned and operated by Rockhampton Regional Council.
When the time came to purchase and install a new PA system into the theatre, it was done in true country-style – with a shoot-out!
“We began the process of selecting a PA with a PA shootout,” explained Matthias Conway, Senior Technician at the venue. “We were deciding between an Electro Voice’s EVA Line Array, Nexo’s GEO S12’s, and a JBL VRX system. We hung the EVA system, comprising of two EVA-2082S-906 and two EVA-2082S-920 boxes, on the left side of the venue and four Nexo GEO S12 speakers on the right side. We used one Dynacord H5000 to power all the EV boxes with no processing at all. Although we didn’t use subs with the EV boxes, there was still a very dominant bottom end and the sound that came from the boxes after just ‘throwing’ them up was quite stunning.”
In true professional style, Matthias still ran the JBL VRX system for comparison but the unanimous voting was for the EVA line array which delivered the sound that they were looking for and really suited the venue’s application.
The final PA system comprised of four EVA-2082S-906 cabinets (two per side on top of the array due to the smaller vertical dispersion), four EVA-2082S-920 cabinets (two per side on the bottom of the array), one EVF-112S/126 for centre fill and two XCS312 cardiod subs hung centre of the room.
”We also purchased four XI 1082 boxes for front fill and used the EV Netmax N8000 to process the whole venue,” added Matthias. “That includes the onstage foldback which is also EV boxes plus we have Dynacord PowerH 5000 amplifiers to drive the system.”
Once the PA system was permanently cabled up and in position, Bosch’s Senior Engineer and system specialist Bryan Davidson flew in to tune the system. Bryan commented on how easy it was to align using SysTune, which now has a NetMax N8000 plug-in, allowing him to tune the system in real time.
”Everything ran smoothly, other than making some small shading adjustments on the boxes which was as simple as pulling the back panel off and changing some settings,” remarked Matthias. “Bryan set up the Netmax system for us - processing, equalising, delaying the system - and then showed us how to access the Netmax settings in a user-friendly way through the program IRIS NET.”
Iris Net allows Matthias to save user presets to the Netmax’s memory and recall them at later dates if needed. It also has the capabilities to remotely control and monitor the power amps and loudspeakers plus it’s an easy tool for troubleshooting if required. Bryan designed a user friendly, intuitive and elegant GUI within IRIS-Net which is the software that reliably controls many of the Electro-Voice DSP’s, amplifiers and wireless systems under one network.
“We are very happy with the EV EVA line array installed in our venue,” concluded Matthias. “It has a sweet, smooth sound with excellent coverage over the room.”
Bosch
