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Normand-Pierre Bilodeau
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Installations
subs, Bilodeau called for boxes of foam (six
to eight every 10 feet) to be hung from the
ceiling. “That dissipates the energy from the
ceiling and now the sound is really tight and
it travels in a longitudinal manner instead of
reflecting from the ceiling.”
In addition, Bilodeau felt it was important
to aggressively control the stage with the use
of close microphones as well as more acoustic
liner. “It dramatically enhances our capacity
to bring down the stage sound effect to a
level where even your source at the beginning
sounds so much better and it’s more intelligible
in the house,” he reports. “I would say
around 60 percent of the stage is covered with
acoustic liner and/or panels.”
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Of course, this kind of acoustic attention
does not come cheap. “We spent around
$3 million in acoustical panels and surfaces
all over the theater,” he states. “At first, they
asked why we put all of that in and if we really
needed it. Well, after the first show they
all came up and said, ‘Okay, we see what you
mean.’”
Anchors Array FOH
After the acoustic treatments were
squared away, Bilodeau turned his attention
to the audio gear. Choices were made based
on two criteria — can it be flexible enough
to be used in a variety of applications and is
it familiar enough to tour managers and FOH
Bill Evans
NOVEMBER 2008 www.fohonline.com
KEvin BEstwicK
A rendering of a concert at The Venue
Opening night star Bette Midler performing at The Venue.
The 3,300-seat concert hall was a challenging install, not because it’s on a riverboat but its location above the casino.
engineers that it would raise any questions.
Bilodeau’s first design featured an L-ACOUS-
TICS array, but he ultimately opted for a Meyer
Sound MICA array with 700-HP UltraHigh-
Power subwoofers and MSL-4s to cover the
wings. The array includes six MICA boxes per
left, center and right hang with two hangs
of six 700-HPs between the left-center and
right-center.
Bilodeau called for a dozen CLAIR 12 AM
monitors and a pair of Yamaha PM5D consoles
(for FOH and monitor) because of their
road popularity. “Most of the touring bands
are using PM5Ds or bigger analog boards
that they would bring in anyway,” he explains.
“So, we went with the 5D because 75 percent
of the shows can use it. If they are going to
bring their huge board in anyway then we
have a big space with everything they need
to plug it in.”
Months after Midler’s opening night performance,
Bilodeau is back in Montreal with
a bit of perspective. He points out that while
this was not the biggest project he has ever
worked on, it was one of the most versatile
because Harrah’s wanted to be able to book
anything into the room. “I don’t think we’re
going to be doing another one on a boat,” he
admits with a laugh. “I think it would be better
to change the laws in the States to have
casinos on the land. It would be cheaper,
that’s for sure.”
Gear
List
FOH Console: Yamaha 5DRH-V2
Monitor Console: Yamaha 5DRH-V2,
12 Mixes
Speakers:
House Mains (R & L) Flown (each side):
9 Meyer Mica, 4 Meyer HP-700, 1 Meyer
MSL 4
Center Cluster: 3 Meyer MS14,
3 Meyer DF-4
Subwoofers: 4 Meyer HP-700
Front Fills: 4 Meyer UPA-1P
Front Lip: 6 Meyer UPM-1P
Equalizer & Effects – FOH Position:
1 Meyer Galileo
Monitor Amplifiers: 12 Mixes I-TECH
4000
Monitor Speakers: 12 Clair 12am, 4 R3,
4 ML 18
Mics: 2 Shure Beta 52, 4 Shure KSM 44,
2 Beyer M88, 6 Shure UHF 58 Wireless
Handhelds, 10 Shure Beta 58, 10 Shure
Beta 57, 10 Shure SM-47-CM, 6 Shure
SM-58-CN, 6 Shure SM-81-LC, 12 Shuew
SM-98A, 2 Shure SM-91, 12 KT DI Box,
10 Sennheiser H220 Hearing Impaired
Headsets.
KEvin BEstwicK