Glasgow production of Beauty and the Beast uses Roland M-480 mixer

Roland’s M-480 Live Mixing Console has been used for a number of productions in Edinburgh and Glasgow theatres including a recent production of Beauty and the Beast in Glasgow.

The M-480 served front-of-house (FOH) duty during the recent production of the Oscar-winning Disney classic by Glasgow-based The Pantheon Club which ran at the Kings Theatre on Bath Street in the city from November 15th to 19th.

The M-480 is the flagship model of the V-Mixing System and comes packed with a number of useful features for such a live sound installation. Most notably the M-480s Remote Control Software (RCS) was particularly useful.

The M-480 RCS is an application that runs on a PC or Mac (via a USB interface) and allows the console to be controlled remotely. What is more, the application can be used for sending or receiving set-up data. This allows users to configure the channel set-ups before arriving at the venue. This saves time required on site for setting up the kit as only minor adjustments should be needed to be made.

The RCS system makes the M-480 a popular choice amongst hire companies such as the Glasgow-based Sono Vie who provided the Roland M-480 for the Kings Theatre production.

The M-480 RCS system was primarily used on this occasion by the radio mic technician to check the functionality of the numerous radio mics in use by the cast at the time.

When connected online, the M-480 RCS can be configured so that the remote screen (whether a PC or Mac) can view and control separate content from that being shown live on the console’s screen itself. This functionality meant that at Kings the M-480 was able to mix the show FOH (using all 48 channels) whilst simultaneously—but using another remote screen, keyboard and mouse—the radio technician could check all the radio receivers and view all the meters.

This meant that the entire system was very simple indeed. The only additional equipment required were two Cat5 cables and a headphone amp.

Despite this control and flexibility was retained as the radio mic technician was able to check the mics as they were handed out during the live performance itself without interrupting to the show. Similarly, the mic technician was able to monitor the soloists’ mic constantly by just checking one screen.

On this particular occasion, Sono Vie also used a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) application alongside the M-480 RCS. This meant that the engineer was able to use an iPad, with the VNC application installed, to adjust the EQ, delay time and levels in real-time from different locations around the venue whilst setting up. Clearly, this helped ensure the set-up was as easy and efficient as possible. The engineer could walk around the theatre making adjustments to each floor and each area as he went.