The Enmore Theatre originally opened to the public in 1912 as a photo-play theatre in Sydney’s inner city suburb of Newtown. With a history spanning almost a century, the Enmore is Sydney’s oldest theatre and has become one of the most popular venues for international acts. With its warm, intimate atmosphere and acoustically sound environment, the Enmore is booked several nights a week all year round.
Owner Bill, who has been running the venue for three decades, started his career in cinema in the 1950’s. With his family, Bill owns and runs the Enmore, Metro and Factory Theatres. Each venue holds its own in terms of its world class standard and all three theatres are constantly in demand with quality performances ranging from traditional theatre shows to live music acts.
Above: Sydney’s Historic Enmore Theatre
A recent sound system upgrade of the three venues was in order and after an extensive shoot out, Nexo was chosen for each location. “Nexo has been the leading name for the past 15 years” remarked Bill. “We started with Nexo Alpha and never looked back. When we decided to upgrade the Enmore, we looked at several brands and the Nexo Geo D came up better all around”.
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“Dispersion is very accurate and it keeps sounding great as the years roll by. The aim was to get even sound dispersion throughout the entire venue so every punter had a great experience” Bill notes. With the speakers being flown slightly ahead of stage, another appealing feature to Bill was that the Geo D’s cardioid pattern naturally minimised spill behind the speakers providing an optimal environment for monitoring on stage. “It’s the most advanced speaker in the world. The design is totally unique”.
The front of house system was comprised of a monster rig including 22 x Geo D 10’s, 8 x Geo Subs, 6 x Geo S1230’s for side in fills and 4 x NX242 es4’s (which include the EtherSound expansion card and additional DSP processors). Amplification was elegantly handled by 20 x Camco Vortex 6 units.
The monitoring system included 14 x PS15’s, 2 x LS1200 Subs, 6 x Geo S1210 (side fill), 2 x RCF 8028 subs (side fill), 4 x PS15 UTD controllers and 1 x Geo S12 UTD –controller. 4 x Camco Vortex 6 and 3 x Camco Techton 38.4’s ensured amplification was easily taken care of.
Factory Theatre, which is considerably newer, recently had a full Nexo Geo S12 system installed also. Tony Swan, the resident FOH engineer believes the sound of the room is impeccable. “All frequencies are clearly audible. Many bands and engineers compliment us at Factory as the room has an excellent sound to it. Many engineers believe it is one of, if not the nicest sounding room in Sydney”.
The Factory front of house was made up of 12 x Geo S1210’s, 4 x RS15’s and 2 x NX242 es4’s. 2 x Camco Vortex 6 and 2 x Camco Vortex 200V’s was installed to drive the entire system.
Above: Sydney’s New Factory Theatre
Metro wasn’t left out of the mix either taking on a beefy Alpha system comprising 6 x Alpha M3’s, 10 x Alpha B1’s, 6 x Alpha S2’s, 2 x NX242’s and 6 x Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers.
With that of course the requirements of each venue were quite particular and Group Technologies assisted in providing consultation ensuring each system was spec’d and installed correctly. Bill makes notable mention of the team at GT mentioning that “… the guys at GT are very approachable. They understand what we need because they come from the same background as us”.
