August 12, 2010
A Former Movie Palace Turns Into A 21st Century Multi-Purpose Venue
ATLANTA, GA—The Buckhead Theatre
originally opened in 1931 as a movie
palace and was used in that capacity
for over 50 years. In the mid 1980s it
was renamed the Roxy and became a
concert venue but fell into disrepair.
Owner Charles Loudermilk purchased
the building in early 2008 and
closed it for a two-year renovation.
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The main venue in the Buckhead Theatre features Nexo GEO S Series line arrays and stage
lighting fixtures installed by TSAV.
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Loudermilk brought in Novare
Events of Atlanta, who in turn was
able to bring the legendary music
promoter Alex Cooley out of retirement
to help manage the venue, so
they are ready to book an impressive
roster of performers and corporate
clients. Technology consulting and
integration were provided by TSAV
of Atlanta, GA, which designed the
video, audio control, and video distribution
systems.
Loudermilk decided to pull out all
the fixed seating in the main auditorium
and leveled the sloped floor to
accommodate 28 dining tables for up
to 224 people. They can also set up
theater-style seating for audiences up
to 850 or accommodate up to 2,100
standing. The newly restored Buckhead
Theatre is a flexible venue ideal
for concerts, corporate events, fund
raising dinners, off-Broadway shows,
product presentations, seminars—
even weddings and bar mitzvahs.
“This is a super flexible space,”
said Keith Reardigan, the project
engineer for TSAV. “It was very hard
for the client to know exactly what
kinds of programs they will bring
into the facility, but, due to our
experience in similar renovations, we
knew there would be a need for movies,
corporate presentations, theater,
and live sound.”
To control these systems, Reardigan
used a Crestron AV2 processor
installed in the theater’s main rack,
with a production-level interface
using XPanel running on an HP
workstation. He also included more
limited and automated controls
accessed from C2N-FT-TPS4 touchpanels
built into lecterns that can be
set up in the theater and each of the
meeting spaces in the building’s converted
second floor area. “If there’s
a production manager in charge of
a concert or stage show, we can give
him full control over the installed
projection, sound, and video distribution
systems from XPanel. But for
a meeting or corporate presentation,
with a little setup the presenter can
have the basic controls he needs on
the touch panel.”
The ground floor theater includes
a 16- by 23-foot rear screen served by
two Digital Projection Titan SX+500
projectors with wide-angle lenses,
projecting side-by-side and edgeblended
using a Vista Systems Spyder
video processor. “We used two
projectors mainly because of the real
estate we had to work with and the
brightness we needed,” Reardigan
explained. “It’s a massive screen, and
we just didn’t have the throw distance
for a single projector.”
The sound system includes a 7.1
surround processor for feature films
as well as a 48-channel Yamaha digital
mixer for meetings, theater, and
concerts, each feeding audio into a
series of Crown amplifiers and JBL
THX-certified loudspeakers. For
the concert and main PA rig, TSAV
used a Nexo GEO S Series line array
system powered by NXAMP 4x4s
supplemented with the JBL THX
certified surround for 5.1 movie
viewing purposes. Reardigan also
designed the video distribution system
to transmit video and sound
from any of the sources in the theater
to the six flat panels in the lobby
and bar, two 15- by 11-foot screens
on the marquee outside, and on each
projection screen in the four meeting
rooms upstairs. For these systems, he
used a mix of Crestron QuickMedia
with Blonder Tounge RF distribution
products.
“We used Crestron QuickMedia
transmitters, switchers, and cable to
move the signals around the facility
for a number of reasons,” Reardigan
said. “First, we wanted an all-digital
signal path, and QuickMedia provided
an economical solution. We had
a cable-length issue going from the
equipment rack in the theater to the
marquee, which QuickMedia solved.
Finally, QuickMedia provided a nice
solution for room combining in the
meeting rooms upstairs.” Reardigan
used a QM-RMCRX-BA room
controller in each room and a QMMD8X8
switcher to provide input at
the presentation positions.
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