Inlet Theatre Tech Tour - Booth Info

Welcome to the Tech Booth - the place where the magic happens! Take this tour to get a bit more information on the sound and lighting consoles that our technicians use for every show to ensure the performers look and sound fantastic. There is a lot of other equipment in the booth and the image below only shows a couple of the pieces that make up the control system.

To begin your self-guided online tour click anywhere on the image below to learn more about the piece of equipment shown. There are a total of 18 images in the grid to choose from. Enjoy and thanks for visiting the Inlet Theatre Booth! If you have any questions please email us.

Interested in more Tech Tours of the Inlet Theatre? You can find them here.

Theatrical Lighting uses a variety of different bulbs, fixtures, and angles to create depth, mood, and detail. The ETC Source 4 Leko is a very popular ellipsoidal fixture used in a wide range of applications due to its flexibility and functionality.

More info - https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Lighting-Fixtures/Source-Four/Features.aspx

The Graphic User Interface of the ETC ION 1000 provides the ability to split the screen providing multiple windows for simultaneous control, monitoring, and feedback. The cues section is one tool that allows the operator to see current, previous and upcoming cues, along with alternate cue lists.

More info - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDb0zewIkQM

The ETC ION 1000 Lighting Console System integrates a variety of expansion accessories giving the user additional control functions. One such accessory is the universal fader wing, available in a variety of configurations. The Inlet Theatre added the programmable 40 fader wing for quick control of almost any of the modifiable traits of the lighting fixtures installed in the theatre, including patched channels, programmed groups, sub-groups, cues, and effects.

More info - https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Legacy/Console/Eos-Family/Universal-Fader-Wing/Features.aspx

A commonly used term in theatrical lighting is “special” which refers to a light that is used to highlight a specific area, item, or create an effect of accent. Often, these lights are focused during the lighting design stage of a shows load-in. Sometimes a “special” is needed without any prior notice, and the ability to quickly focus a light without leaving your post in the tech booth is of great benefit. At Inlet Theatre we have two “Booth Specials” that can be quickly focused and used on a moments notice.

More info - https://www.learnstagelighting.com/how-do-i-focus-lighting-specials/

A Magic Sheet is the lighting designer’s best friend. This is a graphical display of all the lighting systems and specials used in a given production. Inlet Theatre uses multiple Magic Sheets to provide quick visual control of groups, channels, and fixtures.

More info - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_dLlVox_E0

The Inlet Theatre uses the ETC ION 1000 Lighting Desk for control and programming of the lighting fixtures used in the theatre. This Lighting Desk was a replacement for the ETC Express 48/96 retired in 2017.

More info - https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Consoles/Eos-Family/Ion/Features.aspx

DID YOU KNOW?! CCTV is used in theatres around the world to provide a closed feed of what’s happening onstage. It's especially handy when grabbing a snack at concession, minding a crying baby, or keeping an eye on stage during a mid-scene costume change.

Another piece of technology that is an integral part of any theatrical production is Intercom. This technology allows the stage manager to speak to the dressing room, allows a director to call cues to various technicians, doors to open on time, and many other time sensitive details to unfold seamlessly. Not known for it’s sparkling sound quality, few pieces of technology are so simple, yet so incredibly important.

Some of the big brands you’d expect to see in theatres around the world are: Clear-Com, Telex, and RTS. Inlet Theatre’s Intercom system is built around offerings from Production Intercom - https://prointercomllc.com/

More info - https://www.clearcom.com/can-you-hear-me-now-a-history-of-the-development-of-the-intercom-part-3/

Our Lighting Desk, the ETC ION 1000 has a huge learning library produced by ETC. Want to learn more? https://www.etcconnect.com/eoslearning/

Let’s take a closer look! Here’s the view from the booth. We're the first to say, there’s truly no bad seat in our theatre, and this seat is no different!

In 2019 The Inlet Theatre took the step into the world of digital audio with the Allen & Heath SQ6. Along with a smaller size and increased capability, the console provides some great features like recallable console settings, allowing us to save all the settings from a show, and recall whenever necessary. A truly great feature and huge time saver.

More info - https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/sq-6/

A huge benefit of digital audio mixers, is the remote control option. By using an iPad, or Android device running the Allen& Heath MixPad app we are able to adjust microphone settings, and routing from anywhere in the theatre, even on stage. Check the app out here.

More info - https://www.allen-heath.com/key-series/sq/sq-mixpad/

Dance Showcases, Christmas concerts, even plays have changed a lot over the past decade. CDs used to be the playback media of choice. Now it’s digital files provided on a USB storage device. To aid our performers and technicians the Inlet Theatre uses a software called Qlab to design, edit, and play digital audio files for live events. Paired with a touchscreen monitor, Qlab is a very powerful, and convenient tool for audio playback.

More info - https://qlab.app/overview/

The tutorials provided by Allen & Heath are second to none. Learn a bit about our audio mixing console here.

More info - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itsPTUBqkok

In order to give our technical staff the right perspective on things our work surface was elevated to a 36” working height. With a work surface closer to a standing height, our tech chairs extend to a 32” seated position.

Another interesting part of the telephony world that has stuck with theatres, recording studios, and performance halls through the decades. Our TT audio signal routing patch bay.

More info - https://vintageking.com/blog/2017/09/patch-bay-need-one/

One of the benefits of our digital console upgrade is the integration of many components of a traditional “outboard gear” directly into the console itself. Compressors, Gates, Limiters, Graphic Equalizers, Reverbs, Delays, Frequency Modulators, are all built directly into the SQ6. Meaning the only rack gear required is signal processing (Crossover), wireless microphone receivers, and playback devices.

The term crossover refers to a device that splits an audio signal into two or more frequency ranges, so that signals can be sent to loudspeaker drivers that are designed for different frequency ranges. Maximizing efficiency, and sonic quality of the speaker system. Inlet Theatre uses a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) DBX Driverack VENU360 to do this job.

Do you know What Wireless Microphone Frequencies are Legal? Interestingly enough up until mid-2018 the Inlet Theatre used microphones that operated between 662-698 MHz, which are no longer available; to learn more have a read of this FCC report and order FCC 15-140. With the new rules on the horizon, Inlet Theatre upgraded it’s two wireless microphones to the Shure QLX-D Digital Wireless System.

As far as playback devices, Inlet Theatre uses a mac-mini to run Q-Lab, and continues to operate a pair of Marantz PMD331 CD players.

Many of Inlet Theatre’s cabling systems and assemblies were manufactured in the Tri-Cities. Radial Engineering was the manufacturer of choice for the design of Inlet Theatre when it first opened, and many of these original products are still doing the job very well today.

More info - https://www.radialeng.com/history