The renowned Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama used an Allen & Heath ML5000 live sound VCA console for a recent student project at Cardiff's Sherman Theatre. The students were tasked with producing and performing Stephen Sondheim's Grammy award winning musical, Company.
"We produce around six shows a term at the College, sometimes these are internal, and sometimes we take them to professional venues," explains student, Mark Cunningham. "We do have a stock of equipment within the College but it soon became obvious we needed to source a console externally. With a fully radio-miced cast of 14, a medium-sized band and effects playback, we needed a sound console with a large number of inputs; moreover, we needed a lot of auxes and a big matrix to gain full control of the rig."
The College regularly uses an ML3000, a smaller model in the ML Series range, for its productions and lecturing. "We're very impressed with the ML3000's intuitive design, so the ML5000 was the obvious choice–it fulfilled all our needs," continues Cunningham. ML5000 managed FOH and monitor mixing, with Trantec radio mics, Yamaha and BSS EQ, and a predominantly Martin speaker rig.
With the aid of an experienced musical sound designer, who offered tips and advice throughout the production period, the show took place in March for a week-long run.
For More Information:
www.allen-heath.com
www.rwcmd.ac.uk