BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS: Evolving from a summer stock playhouse back in the 1950s to one of the region's more notable year-round performing arts venues, North Shore Music Theatre, in Beverly, Massachusetts, hasn't forgotten its roots.
 

North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts adds
Sennheiser IR system to improve the theatre¹s public access.

While the theatre has grown in stature to claim a share of the theatre world's spotlight by serving as an incubator for dozens of new musicals and hosting numerous premiere events, it still sees itself as a cultural resource for the Boston-area community. The 1,800-seat, in-the-round style theatre, reaches almost 400,000 people annually with its musical theatre performances, celebrity concerts, Shakespearean plays, and children's programming. Its 24,000 subscribers make it the largest such theatre in New England, and place it among the top ten of its kind in the nation.

The theatre's commitment to its patrons is evidenced by its recent acquisition of a new audio distribution system to broaden the scope of the all-encompassing theatrical experience. Installed in April, a new infrared Sennheiser (IR) wireless system greatly enhances the theatre's ability to bring everyone the same level of performance.

While designed primarily to deliver audio to hearing-impaired audience members, the new, two-channel IR system also will have the flexibility to deliver supplementary audio from other sources. John Stone, the theatre's sound department supervisor and resident sound designer, said the IR system was purchased with the idea of improving the theatre's public access.

"We'll be mainly using it for an assistive listening system for the hearing-impaired, but its two-channel configuration will allow us to do more, such as an audio description program for the visually-impaired," Stone said.

Working with Newton, Massachusetts-based AV equipment supplier Talamas Company, who also supplied and installed the theatre's RF system, Stone began evaluating competitive systems and determined that "Sennheiser was the way to go," Stone said. "We have a reputation here for sound that rivals the best Boston-area theatres, as well as some Broadway venues, so we needed equipment that sounds good, works well, is reliable and can take a beating. We don't want to cut corners in terms of sound quality."

The IR system, is composed of six Sennheiser SZI 1029 emitter panels positioned on catwalks that face each of six distinct seating sections for in-the-round theatre, an SI 1015/NT two-channel modulator that drives the emitter panels, and 72 receivers, replacing another vendor's older and less-extensive RF-based assistive listening system. The former system, Stone said, consisted of just 30 receivers that had begun to reach the end of their useful life.

The decision to more than double the number of receivers, which included 68 HDI 302 two-channel receivers and four RI 250-J single-channel receivers with audio output sockets, was made since it is represents about 4% of the theater's seating capacity - the percentage required to comply with the hearing-impaired program.

Rounding out the new IR system for the theatre were a GA 1031-CC rack adapter, eight BA 151 spare rechargeable batteries, eight L 151-10 battery chargers, and two NT 2013-120 power supply units for the chargers.

Several weeks into using the new IR system, the theatre is pleased with its performance. Greg Campagnone, sales manager for Talamas Company, said some tweaking of the system might be necessary, including the possibility of adding more emitter panels. "When the system is pushed too hard there can be a fadeout at the farthest boundary of the system, but that can be solved by putting more panels in," he said. "It will be a learning curve for another month or so."

"In terms of wireless mics, Sennheiser is the only option for theatrical productions," Stone said. "Other competing products may have sound that comes close, but with Sennheiser it's the way the equipment is built. They're much more durable, and with the number of shows we're doing we can't afford to have this stuff break. The same is true with the IR system equipment. We found that the headsets other vendors were offering were not built as well as the Sennheiser products." The relatively new 32-channel, wireless system is comprised of 16 Sennheiser EM 3532 receivers, 32 SK 3063 bodypack transmitters; over 45 MKE 2 Gold lav mics; and six SKM 5000A handheld mics.