Le Sésame Theatre, with only 258 seats, is a very intimate space, but, in terms of its production systems, punches well above its weight. Serving as a school and community theatre, it needed to deliver a high-quality experience, leading the project team to choose an audio system centred around Meyer Sound and DiGiCo.
Located in Kingston, Ontario, and co-managed by the Centre Culturel Frontenac (CCF), Le Sésame is the product of a partnership between the CCF, the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario and the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est – An entirely new venue physically connected to two schools and purpose-designed for maximum flexibility.
“It's a multi-use, multi-functional room," says Martin Vaillant, Managing Partner – Field Service Canada. "There's retractable seating, so they can provide theatre style, standing room, or cabaret configurations."
The newly installed PA consists of a pair of Meyer ULTRA-X40s as main L/R elements, a centre cluster of 2 Meyer ULTRA-X22s, 2 UPM-IPs for rear L/R surrounds, and 750-LFC subs - all outfitted with Glensound AoIP22 Dante Interfaces. For control, there are two DiGiCo S31 consoles, with a Clear-Com Encore Partyline Intercom System with wired and wireless capabilities for comms.
“I was happy to get another S31, a Dante card, and DiGiCo stage boxes because, to my mind, the S31 imitates an analog board. I found the workflow and interface transparent and user-friendly. We talked about trading in our first S31, but I said, ‘No way. I'm not giving away old faithful.’ Honestly, I was as happy to work with GerrAudio again as I was to get the Meyer and DiGiCo gear. They're always available. They've always come through," Technical Director Seth Scholes says.
As the CCF’s site says, their mandate is ‘To gather and unite the Francophone and Francophile community in the greater Kingston and Thousand Islands region by celebrating and enhancing the arts and culture in French.’
“The most advanced shows we do are musicals with upwards of 60 or 70 snapshots per show on the console, 24 wireless headsets, full band, and upwards of 40 inputs," says Scholes, who also lent his voice to the venue design process to ensure it retained a flexible workflow.
"We decided to drive the entire system Dante over MADI," Vaillant explains, "because, with Dante, you have ports throughout the space, so you can just plug in a device with no (additional) patching required – which offers both scalability and flexibility.”
By attaching the Glensound IO boxes to each loudspeaker element, he continues, “Effectively, we've converted the Meyer active PA to a Meyer/Dante active PA so you can move any speaker anywhere within the space, plug it into a Dante connection point, and it's good to go. Everything is network-based. Each speaker has an ID, so wherever it is physically, it always corresponds to the same output.”
“Dante signals are sent to those locations without going analog again - it's digital from the console to the processor to AoIP, and just a short analog run into the speakers," says Adrian Sterling, Ontario Sales Manager for GerrAudio. “So you’re also not running long analog cables and dealing with the challenges of hums, buzzes, and ground loops.”
“Ease of use, functionality, performance, clarity, and high fidelity,” Vaillant says, “those were what we needed for this space. And the rig is more than suitable to handle anything that goes through there.” It’s also expandable as needed, “For instance, if they want more sub reinforcement, because of the Dante system, Seth can add subs and Glensound AoIP boxes as needed – we've already allowed for that in our DSP profiles.”
All that said, Sterling says: "What's most interesting about Le Sésame isn't so much the gear, it's the purpose the venue and the gear serve as a school and community theatre. So it had to be higher quality - more like a small city’s performing arts centre than what you might imagine a school theatre would be."
"This is possible,” concludes Le Sésame Artistic and Marketing Director, Célia Galas, “because Le Sésame is connected to both a public school board and a Catholic school board institution, as well as the non-profit Frontenac Cultural Centre—which is what makes it a community theatre. In that sense, it serves as a school theatre but is undoubtedly a professional venue.”
Photo credit: Martin Vaillant
---
About the CCF: Established in 1978, the Centre Culturel Frontenac is Kingston's premier Francophone cultural hub, dedicated to curating a diverse range of performances and fostering collaborations with local organizations and festivals.
Transforming Kingston's Cultural Space with a Sound System Upgrade