OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT: Nestled in the heart of downtown Cleveland is Playhouse Square Center, the city's premier home for the performing arts. Comprised of a handful of beautifully restored landmark theaters - including the Ohio, the State, the Palace and the newly renovated Allen Theater - Playhouse Square Center is attracting attention both for its world-class performances and for its unbelievable attention to architectural detail.

Recently, the Allen Theater reopened its doors after more than 30 years of quiet neglect. Originally opened in 1921, the 3,080-seat venue was built at the then-enormous cost of $1.9 million. In 1968, the theater was shuttered and left to deteriorate. However, in September 1997, a renovation and restoration project began in earnest, and today the Allen is again drawing capacity crowds of awestruck concert goers. When it came to the sensitive issue of sound system design, Jaffe, Holden, Scarborough Acoustics of Norwalk, Connecticut, was given the daunting task of designing a state-of-the-art system that would blend in amidst the theater's ornate renovations.

One of the first tasks confronting project managers David Robb and Howard Rose was the design of the theater's assistive listening system. Taking no chances, Robb and Rose turned to the leader in Infrared systems, Sennheiser. The team chose the Sennheiser IR SI20-R two-channel transmitter with six SZI-1029W emitters.

"Our object was to cover the entire seating area, so that anyone - no matter where they're seated - can use one of theater's existing Sennheiser IR headsets and hear the performance," Rose says.

The team installed two emitters in the front portion of the theater; two positioned shooting downward on the sides just under the balcony; and the remaining two on lighting towers in the upper balcony. This approach covered every possible seating position. The exceptional performance of the Sennheiser equipment ensured the success of the design. "The Sennheiser IR System has the most power of any system we've experimented with," commented Rose. "With this system, we know it will cover the areas we say it will. It's just that reliable."

As for the remainder of the system, the team opted for a Left-Center-Right loudspeaker configuration. In the center is a cluster of three EAW KF650s on top, with the bottom tier comprised of two EAW KF300s and a SB330E subwoofer. Custom ATM flyware helps keep everything as small as possible.

Left and right clusters consist of the EAW KF6650 on top and KF695 on bottom. The clusters are flown and, due to space and architectural constraints, are not retractable. The clusters can, however, be lowered to the stage and removed depending on the requirements of the performance. With a rather deep under balcony footprint, Rose and Robb added a supplemental delay ring of eight EAW JF80-T60s run in 70-volt mode. Three EAW MK2194s are mounted on an overhead beam to serve as additional reinforcement for the overbalcony position. Plug boxes and wiring were installed to accommodate monitoring systems brought in by specific productions.

All the processing equipment is housed in an existing room backstage right. Gear includes Crest CKS400, 800, 1200 amplifiers; Yamaha YDP2006 equalizers; EAW MX8000 Series speaker controllers (which provide crossover); Aphex 720 limiters; Oxmoor distribution amplifiers; and a Lyntec power sequencer. The Sennheiser IR transmitter is also racked in this room.

The main console - a JHS-customized, Crest Century GT - is situated either in the back of the house (standard Broadway positioning), or can be moved to the front for select musical acts. A full four-channel Clear-Com intercom is interwoven throughout the facility, in addition to a Shure VP88 Stereo microphone permanently hung in the house. This mic feeds the backstage and lobby paging systems so the audience and cast members alike can always hear what's going on. It also functions as a recording mic should the need arise.

Cleveland-based, SoundCom Corporation handled sound system installation with Simon Davis and David Kocias as project managers. "We designed some pretty elaborate bracketing for the proscenium speakers to blend with the theater's aesthetics while facilitating accurate speaker aiming," noted Davis. Given the precise nature of a historical installation, all went quite smoothly." Other high profile SoundCom projects include the new outdoor Cleveland Browns Stadium and Severence Hall, the new Tiger Stadium in Detroit, a joint venture with local Detroit company KLA Laboratories.

With its new Sennheiser Infrared Assistive Listening System and new sound system, the Allen Theater is a great example of what happens when modern audio wizardry blends with the ornate architecture of another era.