Little Shop of Horrors - Teachers Musical Society: Always one of the biggest & most technical shows in my calendar, Teachers MS certainly did not disappoint this time. Little Shop of Horrors is a high octane show & the sound production definitely needs to reflect that.  Staged in the 500+ seat O'Reilly theatre in Belvedere College, CAVS installed a L'acoustic Arc system on our behalf.  Comprising of 6 Arc boxes flown FOH, we also installed four 108 boxes as front fills.  108 Boxes were also used as monitors on stage & in the pit.  Driven as usual on my Yamaha 02R96 digital console, KT graphics & 16 Sennheiser G2/300 series wireless mics with DPA microphones.  The Stage was mic'ed using Crown PCC160's.  Orchestra mic'ing was fairly simple with a few DI's, Beta 57's and a Beta 87 for the voice of the plant.  Also included was two in-ear-monitors (IEM's) for the plant voice & operator.  Sound FX were run via PC on Cue Player.  The shows stunning set was designed by John O'Donnohue, lit by Denis Toomey & stage managed by Gerry McCann.

 

	Clane goes Crazy for You!: Crazy for you was the choice of show for Clane Musical Society this year.  Staged again in the tiny old Abby church in Clane village, this production is always a challenge technically, especially for the cast & stage crew.  Access is the optimum word in this venue.  The cast generally have to walk & crawl through a series of tiny corridors, up & down small ladders which makes this a venue full of surprises.  The band play behind the set in a small room at the back of the stage.  But under the watchful eye of Stage Manager, Marie Cusack this production like many others staged by Clane MS was a great success.  Sound Wise, less is certainly more, only the slightest boost is necessary on a production like this.  In fact there was more orchestra in the PA than cast, because of the bands location & the fact that the big chorus numbers could easily be heard acoustically.  SMC installed four Nexo PS 10 boxes FOH, 2 on stage & 2 in the band room for monitors.  The show used 16 Sennheiser G2/300 series radios with DPA mics, all run off our Yamaha 02R96 digital console.  Dressing room foldback was achieved by wirelessly transmitting a line out via a bodypack to a receiver & a powered box in the dressing rooms.
	SONG - Dundalk: Stage One New-Musical Group performed a very successful concert in the An Taín theatre, Dundalk.  Sound was operated on behalf of SMC by Dee Rogers.  Unfortunately the passing of the father of one of the production team took place during the run, but the show must go on, and that it did.  Congratulations to all involved & our deepest sympathies to Pat & his family.  The show was run on the in-house PA system of a Soundcraft console, Martin PA, DBX outboard and a mixture of 16 Sennheiser G2/550 & AKG WMS 300 wireless mics.
	St Andrew's M.U.N. This years St Andrew's/Model United Nation Conference was held in it's new home at The Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire. Attended by almost 800 students, this 4 day conference discussed a wide array of topics.  A smaller hotel from it's previous venue of Jury's Hotel, this new location brought some new challenges.  More and larger breakout rooms all required PA.  Luckily the hotel did install small systems in most of the rooms.  We simply added consoles to accommodate for lager mic inputs which included top table kits, podium mics and wireless hand-helds for Q&A.  The main ballroom was used for General Assembly and need extra PA in the balcony which was done by transmitting a desk line out from a Midas Venice, via an AKG WMS 4000 body-pack to a receiver in the balcony.  There were 6 AKG WMS 300/4000 hand held systems, AKG C747 Lectern mic & C568 for top table.  All in all there were over 20 microphones used throughout the conference.
	Hot Mikado - DMDS: Dun Laoghaire Musical & Dramatic society this year staged the Hot Mikado!  Performed in the Pavilion theatre, this week long production used the theatre's in-house Myer PA system, driven by SMC's Yamaha 02R96 console and DMDS were the first society to use our new Sennheiser G2/300 series microphones.  Principals all wore DPA 4066 head-sets & a number of chorus members used AKG CK77's. The six piece band were simply amplified using a couple of DI's and a stereo pair of AKG C1000's.  A great review from AIMS adjudicator Jack Neavyn was warmly received.

 

Grange-Woodbine "We Will Rock You" This years show from Grange-Woodbine Variety group was it's usual mix of big musical numbers & dance routines along some side-splitting comedy routines by Des Pierce & his team.  Music included songs from such shows as Hairspray, We Will Rock You, Les Misérables and many more.  The show ran on our 02R96 using in the in-house PA with 19 wireless mics.

New Sennheiser Wireless Kit arrives: Sound and Music Co took delivery of a brand new Sennheiser Evolution G2/300 series wireless microphone kit. Purchased from Sennheiser Ireland, the kit comprises of sixteen G2/300 series receivers and body-pack transmitters, four ASP 2 power/antenna distributors, NET1 PC-data link and is cased in a Gator 10U roller Rack.  Also included is two 345 hand-held transmitters.  The system operates on two different frequency bands with 8 on Band B & 8 on Band D for optimum flexibility.  The new mics will be used on SMC's larger musical productions & will feature ALL DPA microphones including 4060 lavalier & 4066 headsets.

 

	Back to the 80's & High School Musical: Freelance technician, Derek Williams looked after sound operations on behalf of SMC for Malahide Community school's production of Back to the 80's & a week later Derek found himself in Greystones, Co Wicklow working on High School Musical for St David's School.  Both shows used Nexo PS10 boxes & Sennheiser G2/100 and AKG WMS300 series microphones.
	Coolmine Panto: SMC continued it's long standing relationship with Coolmine Panto group, looking after the sound requirements for this years show.  Operated by freelance technician, Jody Trehy, the show played to sell out audiences for two week's in Draíocht arts centre, Blanchardstown.  The Show was run on the new house PA system including a Yamaha LS9/32 digital console, using 16 Sennheiser G2/100 series microphones.
	Snow White: Another successful panto run with Anthem Productions, this year's Snow White ran in Liberty Hall theatre for six weeks.  The show staring Alan Hughes, Joe Conlon & Linda Martin used the theatre's in-house sound system including 12 Sennheiser G1/500 series wireless packs with SMC supplied DPA 4066 head-sets.  Out front the show was run on SMC's Yamaha 02R96 digital console & music playback was performed via an Alesis HD24.  The 70+ sound FX were triggered via a PC using Cue Player. Next years panto will be staged from mid December 08 in it's new home the Tivoli Theatre.  Sound and Music Co will once again be at the helm of Sound Production.