Specialists in the concert and corporate event markets, sound production company WE Audio, has broken into the theatre world with a new touring soul musical production, headlining Ruby Turner. Called Hold On, the show was written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, directed by Andy Hay and is promoted by Paddy Wilson’s Hold On UK. The sound system has been designed by WE Audio’s Wayne Barker, who has extended his inventory of Turbosound equipment with a major purchase from Shepperton-based Marquee Audio.

Barker, who has systematically built up his Floodlight stock from Marquee, realized that a different approach was needed to crack the intricacies of raucous ensemble sound, which requires speech intelligibility and even coverage, delayed into the rear stalls and upper balcony, with under-balcony infills. And so after deliberation, he invested heavily in Turbosound’s QLight series. He acquired 14 three-way TQ-440s (two powered and 12 unpowered) and eight TQ-425 bass systems (two powered and six unpowered). The powered enclosures are used for stage fills and the remainder form the FOH rig, with the 440’s flown over the ground-stacked TQ-425s. WE Audio also purchased 12 TFM-230 two-way floor monitors, which double up with eight TFM-330s from his existing inventory.

The bi-amped TQ-440 and TQ-425 are designed to be used with the LMS-D6 digital system controller, 10 of which formed part of Wayne Barker’s order with Marquee Audio. The remit was completed with the acquisition of five racks of Turbosound-badged MC2 TMC-750/1250 amplifiers. Also used on the show are Shure UHF radio mics, along with Shure Beta 53 headset mics and Beta 87s for vocal mics. FOH sound mixing (by Steve Jones) is via a 56-channel Yamaha PM3500 console, while Chris Whelan has a 48-input Soundcraft SM24 on stage. Our picture shows Wayne Barker with FOH engineer Steve Jones.


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