The critically acclaimed musical West Side Story has enjoyed a highly successful run and is currently enthralling the public at the Nelson Mandela at Joburg Theatre. Prosound’s highly accomplished Technical Director, Mark Malherbe, and premier brands Meyer Sound, DPA Microphones & Midas Pro Series consoles in partnership with hardware supplier Eastern Acoustics, are deeply involved in bringing across the best possible audio representation of the show to appreciative audiences.
While the cast keeps the attendees invested in the story with their stellar performances, DPA d:screet 4061 headset microphones are, as the naming convention implies, discreetly and reliably ensuring every nuance of the actor’s delivery reaches the eager ears of the patrons. The stalwart DPA 4099 microphone does duty in the Orchestra pit, keeping the efforts of these talented musicians perfectly placed in the mix. With a 32-person strong Orchestra, West Side Story has a particularly powerful musical presence emanating from the orchestra pit.
Audio-Technica, distributed by Prosound’s sister company ApexPro, is also used liberally in the Orchestra pit. Their highly popular and great sounding ATM350 microphones are employed on all manner of classical instruments.
Meyer Sound is naturally the brand of choice when it comes to sound reinforcement in the venue. Meyer’s hugely capable M1D Compact Line Array Elements are used to great effect. Front fills, side fills and of course main auditorium PA are all handled by M1D elements – 40 boxes in total, with 16 per side acting as the main line array. The ever reliable Meyer CQ1 & CQ2 Loudspeakers are used as centre fills. Processing is also handled by Meyer Sound’s highly versatile Gallileo units.
All the very best transducers in the world – which most certainly are used on this show -are of course all in vain without a powerful mixing console to keep the engineer firmly in control of proceedings. As with all the very best musicals in South Africa, the first choice is Midas. The Midas PRO 9 and PRO 1 mixers maintain unmatched control over every audible aspect of the production. The consoles are expertly piloted by Cara Dowling. Hardware suppliers Eastern Acoustics sub hired the consoles from Splitbeam for the show.
Staggeringly successful, West Side Story made its debut on the 25th of January and will be coming to a close on the 5th of March. If you haven’t been to see it yet, make sure you take in this spectacular & unique South African production, powered by only the best in audio equipment from Prosound’s Premier Brands: Meyer Sound, DPA Microphones & Midas PRO Series Consoles.