Grund Audio Design The Sound Choice for Nebraska Shakespeare Festival For the past 25 years, theatre buffs in the greater Omaha area have had the opportunity to enjoy some of the nation's most inspiring Shakespeare performances at the annual Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. This year's offerings alternated between two productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. Both productions featured the Gala Series GA-4041NGS loudspeaker system and DP-26C processing from Council Bluffs, Iowa-based Grund Audio Design. Rande Ferguson served as the live sound engineer for this year's programs. He is also the front-of-house engineer for Mannheim Steamroller. "The Nebraska Shakespeare Festival performances take place in a lovely, tree-lined corner of Elmwood Park adjacent to the UNO (University of Nebraska, Omaha) campus," Ferguson reports. "We make every effort to produce these plays without relying on technology. While we use a sound reinforcement system, there are no wireless mics, in-ear monitors, or anything of that nature. As a result, the actors and actresses must project their lines -- much like they did when these works were originally performed. Being outdoors, we 'aid' those performers with a sound reinforcement system, but beyond that, what you see and hear is what you get. Vocal articulation is the key factor when determining audio performance for this type of presentation and, for this application; nothing beats the Grund Audio GA-4041s." For this year's programs, which occurred on June 23-26 and July 6, 8, and 10 (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and June 30, as well as July 1-3, 7, and 9 (Hamlet), the sound system consisted of six Grund Audio Design GA-4041s -- positioned three enclosures per side -- for the house mains. These were elevated roughly 12-15' above ground and hidden among the scaffolding that framed the stage area. The GA-4041s are line array loudspeakers specifically optimized for ground stack applications. Effectively housing two Grund Audio Design GA-2021N line array elements in a single enclosure, each GA-4041 incorporates four 10" low frequency transducers plus four 1" high-frequency compression drivers. The GA-4041s are also fully weatherized. For front fill and backstage cueing purposes, Ferguson also deployed four Grund Audio Design GT-1601 two-way, dual bass reflex loudspeakers. The two front-fill loudspeakers were mounted on stands and positioned just below the house mains while the two remaining GT-1601s were placed backstage to handle cueing for the talent. For loudspeaker processing, Ferguson utilized three Grund Audio Design DP-26C loudspeaker processing unit -- one for each loudspeaker stack and a third for adjustment of the overall sound. "The DP-26C is a terrific unit," Ferguson says. "I programmed the two units that stayed with the loudspeaker clusters using the software front end when we originally configured the system and then just let them work their magic from that point on. The third processor stayed with me at the FOH mix position so that I could make adjustments to EQ and compression." About the performance of the Grund Audio Design GA-4041s, "For this application, Ferguson says, "It's all about the spoken word. Speech intelligibility is crucial. Without this, no one can understand the play. These loudspeakers have the best performance of their kind I've ever encountered-to a distance of 300'. Further, the 4041s also provide very even dispersion. While I wasn't running stereo, I had a very wide and deep audience area to cover and these loudspeakers did an exceptional job of providing clear, highly intelligible coverage throughout the area." Ferguson adds, "The sound system did everything it was supposed to. It delivered exceptional vocal articulation to all areas of the audience. When I get positive energy from the actors, I know we're on to something good. This system provided crystal clear audio, uncolored and in no way doctored to deliver something that wasn't there. These loudspeakers never get in the way of the art -- they reinforce it, and without ever distracting the audience." http://www.nebraskashakespeare.com/home 
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