SYSTEMS INTEGRATION ASIA
NEWS City Recital Hall Upgrades with The P.A. People
Dianne Reeves performance at the City Recital Hall. Photo copyright Keith Sunders
AUSTRALIA: Sydney’s beloved City Recital Hall at
Angel Place hosts a rich program of concerts and events, covering a broad range of genres from the contemporary to the classical. For 20 years, it has been a beacon to music lovers, nestled in the famous laneway precinct of the CBD. As the venue enters its third decade of operation, time and heavy usage meant that the original stage management system, the essential control centre of every performance, was past its serviceable life and needed to be replaced. “The system was part of the original 20-year-old fit out of the venue and as such had become unreliable and no longer fit for purpose,” relates Andrew Hudson, Technical Services Manager at City Recital Hall. “We put out a public tender for its replacement. The brief required the successful company to design, supply, program, install, test, and commission a system that, in addition to providing the usual functions such as paging to various backstage and foyer areas, talkback, and cue-lights, also included a large number of bespoke items, such as the ability to monitor stage temperature, be able to operate simple performance audio and lighting, record and playback
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messaging to foyers and backstage areas and record performance content. A new FOH manager’s announcement and audience recall system also fell within the scope of works.” The P.A. People proposed a new system based around Crestron control, an ETC CueSystem, QSC Q-SYS audio processing, and Clear-Com FreeSpeak ll comms. Their bid was successful, and a team headed by Project Manager Ross Ford rolled up their sleeves and got to work. “We had to enable a lot of functionality that’s not usually included in an SM console,” explains Ross. “The big one was the ‘Basic Mode’ that allows for one-person operation of the venue. This includes control over the work lights and some lighting dimmers, the ability to trigger a pre-set lighting state, and simple volume control over wired and wireless microphones, all via the 10-inch Crestron touch panel fitted into the console.” The Q-SYS audio DSP has been programmed to record and playback audio messages, including an ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ announcement. Stage managers can pre-record their own announcements APRIL 2021
