Date: February 2007

NOBODY PUTS XTA IN A CORNER

In November 2004 Dirty Dancing, the motion picture that had a profound effect on a generation, transferred to the stage in Sydney Australia. The London production – the latest in what is to be a worldwide roll out - opened at the Aldwych Theatre in October 2006 and is having an equally profound effect, to the extent that it is slated as being the fastest selling theatre show in the West End, with future sales already grossing an incredible £30 million.

Responsibility for the audio design was put in the experienced hands of Bobby Aitken, who has made his first foray into the XTA DP4 Series processors for speaker control, plus some tried-and-trusted Dynamic EQ for tricky vocal parts

The front of house loudspeaker system is predominantly d&b with a centre cluster of DVDosc and EM Acoustics’ new small size base cabinets in the corners of the auditorium.

Crossovers and system management is from six XTA DP448s with XTA SiDDs across some of the vocals. “The actors all wear mics up in their hairline in theatre style,” says Aitken. “But there are a few points in the show where we use DPA 4061s. When a mic is that close, we use the SiDDs to manage the dynamic EQ a little bit.”

The advantages of the increased inputs and outputs on XTA’s new 4 Series Audio Management System became immediate obvious to Aitken.

“This is the first time I’ve used the DP448s and they’re great,” he smiles, offering up the neat racks that sit behind the scenes at the Aldwych Theatre as testament. “We’ve reduced the physical rack space needed by 50% by using them. The new software works well for us and set up via a wireless tablet throughout the auditorium was easy.”

All sound equipment for this incarnation of Dirty Dancing is supplied by experienced theatre company Autograph Sound Recording.

[ENDS]

CONTACTS:

Guy Lewis, XTA 
Tel: +44 1299 879977
Email: guy@xta.co.uk

Sarah James, Gasoline Media
Tel: +44 1372 383000
Email: info@gasolinemedia.com