On any given night Hamilton Place Theatre hosts shows ranging from dance
performances through one man standup acts like Billy Connolly, to the Hamilton
Philharmonic and touring artists like Morrissey and Sarah McLachlan. In 2015, owing
to changes in the entertainment industry, the 2200-seat venue’s audio system was
upgraded substantially and now boasts a rig driven exclusively by Lab.gruppen
amplifiers.

“The previous system was installed roughly fifteen-years-ago,’ says Mike Stewart,
Head of Audio at Hamilton Place. “More bands tour without full production now, and
while the old system provided decent coverage, we needed something that would
provide more output, tighter sound, and make the venue more flexible and
competitive.’

The original design called for Kling & Freitag (K&F) loudspeakers and Lab.gruppen
amps, but it wasn’t until Lab.gruppen’s D Series amps were released that Stewart
and Calvin Roy, Vice President of Product Sales/Integration at Hamilton, Ontario-
based Soundbox Pro, realized how good a fit the D Series were for the venue’s
needs and for the K&F system specifically. “We worked closely with K&F and
Lab.gruppen to develop the design,’ Roy says, “and chose the new D Series amps
because they integrated Dante Audio Networking.’

The Dante protocol allowed the venue to reuse existing cabling infrastructure,
keeping the project cost effective and limiting the time taken for the install. “It’s
solid, quality cabling and piping. Initially, we were going to use Lab.gruppen
amplifiers with an external Dante box, but when the D Series came out and we
realized we could do what we needed using a standalone, touring grade amplifier in
an install package it was a “win win’ situation.’

In total four D Series D 80s drive under balcony, L/R house fills and front fills, and
eight D 200s power the line array and subs. Additionally, three PLM 12K44 amps
drive the monitor system. A digital console located at FOH is used to control both
mains and monitors.

All the new system elements were installed by the venue’s in-house IA crew and
while the new loudspeaker system is significantly larger and allows Hamilton Place
to better serve diverse touring acts, the four-channel D Series’ power, and the
integration of Dante and Lake Processing allowed the venue to cut the number of
amps needed to run the rig by roughly half. “We went with the version with the
Lake processor because Lake is the de facto standard for live performance and
touring,’ Stewart says, “which saved us having to buy external processing.’

This project represents one of the first installations of Lab.gruppen D Series in
North America and since the install in January 2015 Lab’s D Series have become the
K&F’s system amplifier resulting in a K&F version of the range. Hamilton place was
during the install upgraded to the K&F version with red fronts.