Gareth Owen -- Wavetool Calms a Summer of Bats

	Stefan Ringer serves as monitor RF tech on Starlight Express. Photo: Timo Liski

It's a rare occurrence when a British sound designer has three musicals, all shows of US origin, running on Broadway. No transplant himself either, Gareth Owen also has four shows in London's West End. As if that weren't enough, his latest design for a re-staging of Starlight Express has just opened to rave reviews in Bochum, Germany.

"Starlight is currently the world's largest Soundscape installation, that's the new creative acoustic environment software from d&b audiotechnik; in short a revolution for the audience experience. But it's important when you engage with new technology that you don't lose touch with the fundamentals, in particular, the need to maintain an entirely reliable platform for the performance. Which is why I'm so fond of Wavetool. It might appear simple, but on a day to day basis Wavetool is integrated into everything we do. It has moved radio mic technology into the 21st century."

To illustrate his point, Owen referred to two productions, Summer, the biographical musical about the career of Donna Summer playing on Broadway, and Bat out of Hell, a musical that needs no explanation, in the West End. "These shows are typical, both are founded on the modern pop vernacular and sometimes quite loud. As such they require precise attention to the performers microphones."

"With Bat the biggest challenge is finding the balance between rock and roll and musical theatre. The songs are designed to be played loudly, Jim Steinman writes good balls-to-the-wall rock. That said the essential ingredient of musical theatre is you have to be able to hear every word -- the lyrics must be allowed to tell the story. So, the balance question is between what works musically through volume, and what works theatrically." As Owen was quick to point out, the Bat audience tends to be an even mix of fans of musical theatre, and Bat album lovers who may have never been to theatre before. "The former doesn't want to be blasted, the latter do."

Danny Pearson, his Sound No.2, explains the detail. "As Gareth said, one of the main challenges at Bat Out of Hell is achieving vocal clarity, given the 12-piece band, the rock and roll nature of the show, and the use of miniature head worn microphones. Therefore, it is crucial that these microphones are always in the best possible position on the actor, and that's despite complex, energetic choreography and multiple costume changes. Wavetool allows us to constantly monitor the quality of these microphones and judge whether or not there is a problem (be it a broken cable, a slipped position, or a number of other potential issues), and to do so throughout the show. With 44 radio microphones in use, the clear and accurate Wavetool interface easily allows us to spot problems before they affect the show. The fact that we can see an overview of audio level and RF level over the past 10 seconds for every receiver has proved to be incredibly useful." It's worth noting that Owen has been nominated an Olivier for Bat, his response was refreshingly earthy. "It helps we start the show at eleven, we really kick them out of their seats."

Summer bears comparison, but its disco roots impose other strictures. "Like Bat it is all mixed in surround sound, and like Bat the big challenge is vocal headroom," said Owen. "The other issue is mic positioning, our director, Des' McAnoff (he did Tommy, and Jersey Boys, arguably the most successful juke box musical of all time) is not a fan of typical boom mics like the 4066; yet this is a show powered by a d&b J-Series with J-SUBs and J-Infras, peaks of 111dBA are not uncommon, so using only head worn mics was a huge challenge. This was where Wavetool really came into its own. Jordano Abrenica my number two, was able to scrupulously ensure every mic position was precisely the same every night and through every change, so the really tight EQ we had done for each to get maximum headroom could be achieved with consistency."Summer is actually the first show I've used Wavetool on and its proved an excellent tool. Our band is a seven-piece and very loud. With the cast we got lucky in that we have been able to use head worn mics placed very far down their forehead, so they are close to the source of sound. Pinned to their wig prep ensures consistency of placement night to night. On Wavetool we also monitor handhelds which are used on our loudest numbers -- but there is no issue really for me as far as vocal headroom between the two different types of mics. On Wavetool's 'channel I/O' editor you can set the input gain to your liking and generally I haven't had a problem with loudness or distortion. We are using the Wavetool/iPad interface for audio, that's when adjusting the input gain in Wavetool was really helpful."

"There is not a lot I can tell you about Wavetool" concluded Owen, "other than, we use it on everything. Everybody really likes it, the tech' support is excellent, and everyone really likes Timo Liski who runs the company."