Billed as a “Harbinger of the Future”, the new Theatre at Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila’s expanding Entertainment City complex, has earned an instant acclaim for bringing first class amenities and cutting edge theatre technology to audiences in the Philippines.  Coherent Design acted as principal theatre consultant for the project, as well as designer of the theatre’s entire technology package.  Coherent Design also acted as the primary acoustical consultant for this state of the art project.

The new 1,761 seat venue, which celebrated its grand opening in late 2014, is the center piece of a multi-billion dollar development owned and operated by Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels.  One of the most unique features of this lyric style theatre project is the integration of architectural acoustics, active electronic acoustics, and direct reinforcement systems all being designed from the outset as an integrated whole.  Integrating active acoustics and PA design into a construction project from the earliest design phases is still a relatively new concept.  At Solaire, we have none of the surfaces introduced to generate early reflections for stage sound, a feature that only causes problems for amplified sound.  There is no tonal modification from surfaces around the main arrays, allowing the theatre to deliver very clear, uniform, and uncolored sound reproduction.

The “active acoustics” or Constellation™ system includes a total of 63 ambient microphones that are placed over and around the stage and seating areas, with signals feeding a D-Mitri™ digital audio platform hosting VRAS™ acoustical algorithms.  On the output side, for introducing calculated early reflections and late reverberations into the space, Constellation™ employs a total of 213 small Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.  The theatre has about a dozen basic acoustical presets to work with everything from hard rock to jazz, pop, symphonic, and Broadway shows.  The room also has a preset, just for presentation purposes of a very long “cathedral” setting.  Additionally, the theatre has the option to route the main audio mix console into the systems for special surround effects, if desired.

Although the Theatre at Solaire has ample facilities for accommodating front of house gear on touring productions, the in-house equipment roster is very rider friendly for most international tours.  The house PA system includes 12 speaker cabinets per side, a Meyer Mica line array hung left and right of the proscenium on chain motors with 6 Meyer 1100-LFC in a direction subwoofer array.

The theatrical lighting systems, designed by David Starck and Sean Greener of Coherent Design, are also state of the art. Middleton, Wisconsin based Electronic Theatre Controls was selected as the provider of the dimming and control systems.  Six ETC Sensor3 power control racks fitted with 576 modules, including ThruPower modules, were specified and installed.  The venue also employs an Eos Ti lighting desk with 8,000 outputs.  Additionally, an ETC Unison Paradigm architectural control system is used for houselights and work lights.

As the theatre consultant, Coherent Design was also responsible for the design and specification of the theatre’s stage systems.  The stage floor is a tongue and groove maple floor with resilient rubber pads to provide for performer injury protection.  The stage structure is engineered to 12kN/m² load.  The stage is approximately 690 m² with a proscenium of 17.5 m x 12.3 m.

The stage rigging and fly system include 62 line sets, six electric sets, and seven lifting lines per set.  The theatre has a 907kg arbor capacity, including batten weight.  The house curtain is 19.5 meters by 13 meters to match the interior design and can function as a guillotine, traveler, and center split.

The theatre stage is outfitted with an orchestra pit, with a usable area of 72 m².  The front section of the pit includes an automated scissor lift, which allows it to function as additional orchestra pit space, additional audience seating or as stage thrust.

The facility provides 6 Star dressing rooms, 2 four person rooms, 4 eight person rooms, and 1 sixteen person room.   Additional support facilities include: Green Room, Crew Room, and Band Room which top out the performer and crew accommodations.

Architect: AEDAS
General Contractor: Solaire
AV Contractor: AVL System Manila