RF Venue recently put its new RF PA Extension Kit to work at the Edmund Keefe Auditorium in Nashua, New Hampshire. The 1,503-seat venue recently deployed RF PA to streamline backstage and remote-area audio distribution during Actorsingers community theater productions.
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Built in 1936, the Keefe Auditorium’s 20-inch-thick brick-and-concrete walls have long presented a formidable barrier to backstage monitoring. Technical director Dennis Schneider explained that traditional wired solutions meant running hundreds of feet of cable to reach multiple green rooms, makeup and costume areas, and the lobby. The process consumed hours of labor and ate into valuable rehearsal time on the front end of setup for a production and hugely complicated the compressed teardown timetable which is limited to just six hours after final curtain.
RF Venue’s RF PA, in contrast, delivered an alternate solution near instantly. “We plugged it into the console, placed receivers beyond the thick walls, connected powered speakers, and it just worked,” Schneider said. “No delay, no dropouts, totally rock solid. It’s the first wireless audio bridge I’ve used that I can trust for range and reliability in a multiroom setting.”
RF PA operated dependably at the theater through multiple brick-and-concrete walls and over distances exceeding 100 feet, with no impact from 36 active wireless microphone channels, wireless DMX, and hundreds of audience cell phones. It was fully operational in under an hour even on first use, replacing roughly three hours of cable setup and hugely reducing strike time. With full-bandwidth audio and no perceptible delay, it delivered the low latency and high fidelity essential for music-driven productions.
Composed of one rack-mount two-channel transmitter and two compact single-channel portable receivers, the RF PA Extension Kit extends two channels of high-quality audio wirelessly via analog FM in the 470 to 506 megahertz UHF band. The 1RU transmitter independently converts two line-level analog input channels to separate RF signals. Hardwired audio pass-throughs leaves the primary signal path unchanged.
The portable receivers run on 12 VDC and output line-level audio to feed loudspeakers or other gear. The diversity receivers are IP 54 rated with weatherproof connectors for outdoor use. Facilitating use with satellite loudspeakers and delay towers in large venues, the receiver units have up to 800 milliseconds of built-in digital delay to allow satellite speakers to be time-aligned with the main PA’s propagation. Frequency and delay can be configured at the receiver or from the transmitter via a 2.4 gigahertz synch signal.
Because it operates outside the crowded RF bands conventionally used for wireless microphones and monitors, RF PA avoids competition for precious RF spectrum. Stereo or two independent mono mixes can be local cast to additional receivers backstage, in green rooms, orchestra pits and lobbies, outdoors, and it can even serve as a temporary main PA bridge during load-in.
During load in, rehearsals, and performances, the system operated flawlessly alongside 36 wireless microphone channels, wireless DMX, and hundreds of audience cell phones. Schneider emphasized the value this brings to a volunteer-run company with limited access to the venue. “We only get 20 total hours of tech rehearsal before opening night. If I can save an hour or two by not fussing with cabling, that’s time I can spend improving the mix and the show.”
Actorsingers’ permanent RF PA is packaged in a portable rack kit for quick deployment across the groups’ five-to-six annual productions and special events.
“From a technical standpoint, the RF Venue RF PA wireless remote speaker system has been a game changer for us,” Schneider concluded. “It gives us the reliability, range, and sound quality we need in one compact package, and it’s freed us from the hours of labor and frustration that used to come with backstage audio. For a historic venue like ours, with challenging architecture and tight schedules, this RF Venue technology is nothing short of essential.”