Murfreesboro, TN (March 31, 2016)—Middle Tennessee State University may be known for its in-depth recording program but that’s hardly the only place on the Murfreesboro campus that has high-end pro audio gear. Take the Tucker Theatre, which hosts music, dance, theatrical, and television productions, along with performances in intimate settings, award ceremonies, films, pageants, recitals, product launches and more. The facility recently upgraded the house desk to a Roland M-5000 OHRCA live mixing console.
Production manager Justin Durham and production coordinator Andy Berg upgraded from the Roland M-400 48-channel live mixing console that had been at the theater’s FOH position for the last several years. Other Roland infrastructure remained in place, including five M-48 live personal mixers and three S-1608 digital snake stage units.
“It wasn’t that the M-400 wasn’t serving our needs anymore,” stated Durham. “We saw the M-5000 was coming out [in 2015] and we agreed, okay, now we’re seeing some functionality that we would really enjoy having. And there were little things that we didn’t know we needed. For instance, being able to change the name on the fader, change the color, and all these different user-programmable things; these features make workflow a breeze.”
Durham notes that the theater’s busy schedule, with a variety of different types of events, requires flexibility at FOH, and the M-5000 has made this type of event much easier: “In plays especially, there are unique stage directions. If I want a phone to ring on stage left, as an example, it takes a whole channel to make that happen. When you do a play and you’ve got five or six of those, suddenly the ins and outs on your console are used up [on a traditional console]. The M-5000 gives us the ability to have all those ins and outs, with all the peripherals like a computer and a CD player and all that kind of extra stuff that you just need in general, all at your fingertips with no hassle.”
Roland Professional A/V
http://proav.roland.com/ohrca
