San
Francisco, CA (July
21, 2015) —Hailed as “one
of the great musicals of the latter part of the 20th century” by the San
Francisco Chronicle, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “A Little Night Music”
recently wrapped after an extended run at the American Conservatory Theater
(ACT). Florida-based sound designer Kevin Kennedy, returning to the ACT’s Geary
Theater for his third production at the venue, utilized Lectrosonics
Digital Hybrid Wireless® Technology
to help two-time Tony Award-nominated director Mark Lamos deliver his vision
for the all-new staging of the popular musical.
Kennedy designed a system for
the production using the theater’s in-house Lectrosonics wireless equipment,
which comprises four Venue
series receiver mainframes, each fully outfitted with six VRT receiver
modules—a total of 24 channels in just four rack spaces. The receiver
complement includes 18 SMQV
dual-battery Super-Miniature beltpacks and four SMV Super-Miniature
beltpacks. He additionally employed a pair of HM plug-on
transmitters for use with handheld microphones “for the ‘god’ mics,” explains
Kennedy.
“The audio quality is
great, and they are very reliable,” he says of the Lectrosonics equipment.
Kennedy’s credit list includes “1776” and “Tales of the City,” both at ACT, as
well as “My Fair Lady,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,”
“Pulse,” and numerous other productions around the country.
Kennedy combined DPA
4061 lavalier microphones with the Lectrosonics wireless system on the
production of “A
Little Night Music.” “That pairing works out really, really well,” he
comments. “I would like to think everything I’ve done at the American Conservatory
Theater has sounded good, but I feel very rewarded by the way ’A Little Night Music’
turned out, in particular. A lot of it had to do with the mics and the wireless
equipment. If you start out with a good input signal then the rest is a lot
easier.”
Kennedy first encountered Lectrosonics wireless
equipment on ACT’s production of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City.” “Two
designers that I work with designed that show. I took over mixing the show and
spent a couple of months with it. I really came to like the quality of the
Lectrosonics equipment,” he reports, also noting the popularity of the brand in
broadcast and film applications because of its audio quality and functionality.
“The Lectrosonics' transmitters
have some interesting functions and features, like being able to put them to
sleep and wake them back up, extending battery life,” he says. “If somebody is
wearing a pack for 12 hours but they only go on for two it’s nice to be able to
suit them up and then turn the mic off and on without having to dig through wigs
or costuming, which can be important functionality to have in theatrical
productions.”
“A Little Night Music,” a story of lost love, infidelity and young passions that was inspired by an Ingmar Bergman film, premiered in 1973 on Broadway before opening
around the country and throughout Europe. Set on Midsummer’s Eve at a country
house in Sweden in 1900, it is perhaps best remembered for the ballad “Send in
the Clowns,” which enjoyed chart success in the 1970s and has since become a
standard.
About Lectrosonics
Well respected within the film, broadcast, and
theatre technical communities since 1971, Lectrosonics wireless microphone
systems and audio processing products are used daily in mission-critical
applications by audio engineers familiar with the company's dedication to
quality, customer service, and innovation. Lectrosonics is a US manufacturer based
in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Visit the company online at www.lectrosonics.com.