Royal Shakespeare Theatre makes sound advance with d&b Soundscape.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), home of the revered Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has become the latest world-class venue to embrace the future of sound for live performance, by adopting the proven spatial audio power of d&b Soundscape.
A Symbol of Excellence
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has long been a global reference point for Shakespeare performance, symbolising excellence in theatre production. Its main house, the 1,040+ seat Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) in Stratford-upon-Avon entered its current phase when it reopened in 2010, transformed with a new thrust stage and galleries in an intimate, courtyard-style, but remained a largely ‘classical’ environment.
In recent years, however, audio technology has progressed to the point where amplification – and the flexibility it brings – could be considered.
“It was unusual for us to use radio mics,” says the RSC’s Head of Sound Jeremy Dunn, “unless for a show like Les Mis, or Matilda – not for Shakespeare. But now, we’re open to the idea that if a director wants to do a show in a more hyper-realistic way, if they want to use radio mics, they can.”
Future Sounds
“Radio mic’ing is difficult in a thrust auditorium like ours,” says Dunn. “It’s a three-dimensional space, so you really need to track people, to have the ability to ensure that the speech comes from the actor on stage. It’s about reducing distraction. I wanted to maintain that focus on the story, so intelligibility was paramount.”
With advances in spatial audio, Dunn knew that such an option could be not only possible, but acceptable. After researching the market, he settled on d&b Soundscape.
“We knew what we were looking for,” says Dunn, “and d&b proved that Soundscape could meet our needs by showing us existing examples, with which we were very impressed.”
d&b’s team worked closely with Dunn to design a system that would meet the particular needs of the venue’s architecture and programme.
The installation was carried out by d&b partner Autograph Sound, led by installation design engineers Mark Noble and David Prosser. Their work window – amid the fit-up for the RSC’s big, friendly, festive show, The BFG – was a mere six days.
The d&b Soundscape Solution
The system would feature three DS100 processors at its core, managing signal distribution to over 180 loudspeakers.
The biggest physical change would be to the main system. “We’d used a single, central array previously,” says Dunn, “because actors often stand in the middle, about two meters upstage of centre. With Soundscape, in order to create that depth of imaging, we used seven smaller sources flown around the lip of the thrust.”
Although these arrays of d&b ALi60/ALi90 are compact in comparison, positioning was a challenge. In bringing them forward from stage centre care had to be taken with balcony sightlines, and also to ensure nothing was impeded for the venue’s other departments.
Low-end is provided by a central hang of two KSL-SUBs, while an additional B22-SUB is positioned on the floor for effects.
For gallery delays and fills, the room required three discretely controllable tiers, to handle the differing time alignments necessary as people move around the deep stage. The new system included compact loudspeakers from d&b’s xS-Series – predominantly 4S, 5S, 8S and 44S – mainly replacing existing positions.
The World Stage
“The RSC is arguably one of the most respected producers of theatre in the world and its been a privilege to support them with the right tech for their next chapter,” says Autograph’s Mark Noble. “The fact that they’ve chosen d&b Soundscape as their spatial audio solution makes this an installation particularly noteworthy.”
With positive feedback from the RST’s stakeholders, Dunn is delighted with the upgrade. He says, “I’ve heard from others that directors have said they would have directed their show slightly differently had they realized how good Soundscape was. From our point of view, we’re very pleased with the results so far, and excited for the future.”
Recent productions employing the new system have included Henry V, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while it is also set to enhance this summer’s forthcoming world premiere of Game of Thrones: The Mad King.
