In 2018, the historic Rialto Theater in Loveland, Colorado chose an Alcons Audio LR7 pro-ribbon micro line array system to deliver high quality audio, while preserving the ambience of its protected 1920s decor. At the time its existing subwoofers had to be used, but the theater has now been upgraded with Alcons subwoofers, bringing the audio system to its full, high-quality potential.
Although the first 75 years of its existence was rather checkered, since 1996 the restored Rialto Theater has thrived as a combined movie house, live arts venue, and community centre. When the city-owned venue’s sound reinforcement system was updated three years ago, it was a challenge to find a system which could deliver powerful, high-quality sound in a space with a lot of hard, flat surfaces. Not only that, but it now hosted a much broader range of events than the venue was designed for.
The solution was an Alcons system comprising eight 6.5-inch LR7/90 micro line array modules per side, two SR9 double five-inch micro monitors as front fills, all powered and controlled by Sentinel amplified loudspeaker controllers. This transformed the quality and detail of the sound for all the Rialto’s events from physically small arrays. Budget constraints meant that the subwoofers could not be updated at the time and, in a subsequent upgrade, a pair of Alcons Cinemarray CRA24 double 12-inch medium format, line source loudspeakers were as a centre screen channel for movie shows and centre cluster for other productions.
Now, in the third phase, the replacement of the original subwoofers with three double 18-inch Alcons BF362iMkII high output subwoofers and a further four 2,500w Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controller has seen the Rialto enjoy all the benefits of a complete, fully-integrated Alcons system.
“The existing subwoofers were underperforming,” said Phil Baugh, the Rialto Theater’s technical coordinator. “The LR7 pro-ribbon arrays, Cinemarray and SR9s all sounded beautiful and clear, so it was time to provide low end reinforcement which matched the quality and power of the rest of the Alcons system. Importantly, we needed a solution to deliver powerful bass frequencies to the entire theater without them building up in the corners, along the walls or spilling onto the stage.”
Phil added: “The first time I heard our LR7s immediately sold me on the Alcons brand. So, when the time came to upgrade our subwoofers, Alcons was the first name on our list.”
They heard demos of subwoofers from other brands, but Phil and his team still felt that a fully integrated Alcons system would best deliver the results they wanted. “We use Alcons’ ALControl to manage the other speakers and Sentinel amplifiers, so adding integrated subs and amplifiers made perfect sense,” he said.
The Rialto technical team installed and commissioned the BF362iMkII subwoofers, Phil’s belief was immediately proved correct.
“We experimented with several room configurations to achieve the coverage we needed and immediately found that the Alcons subwoofers delivered clear, punchy low end, without the muddiness we heard from other options that we demoed,” he said. “The coverage and raw power are truly incredible, especially given the slim profile of the physical enclosure. Our concert sound is full, clear and deep, and our cinema configuration has never sounded better. This fully integrated system is certainly ahead of competing subwoofers in the same price range.”
Steve Lemmon, Rialto Theater manager, added: “We have been very impressed with how well these boxes integrate with our existing Alcons rig. We look forward to a long relationship with Alcons Audio.”
