Pro Sound News Review

Theater Presents Upstairs/Downstairs Install

Norman, OK–Sandor Sound Services recently finished an installation upgrade at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, OK, for its Rupel Jones Theatre, a highly flexible venue. The installation was designed to provide students in the drama department with an easy-to-use system, using a sizable Meyer Sound loudspeaker rig.

All this sounds simple enough, but there’s always a catch, and, in this case, it was the fact that, depending on the semester, the drama department needed to be able to mix productions from an upstairs location as well as a downstairs location.

To meet this unusual need, Ed Sandor, president of Sandor Sound Services, designed multi-snake scenarios with a simple layout that allowed the theater to recycle existing speakers and wiring while interfacing the new speakers and cables to completely address the upstairs/downstairs scenario. As a result, venue crew can move the console and playback and dynamic racks to either location while still being interfaced to the stationary main rack upstairs. The main rack houses the monitor amps, lobby sends, and a BSS Soundweb unit, which, in turn, feeds two Meyer CQ1s, two CQ2s, two PSW subs and one UPA (all self-powered) for the main house and a proscenium mix.