The landmark Granada Theatre on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara has been almost completely re-constructed to serve the community as a performing arts venue for concerts, drama, theatrical presentations and more.
AMT Systems accepted the opportunity to provide our construction engineering and production services on a much accelerated installation timeframe to complete renovation on time and within budget. To do so meant literally compressing a three month installation schedule into less than a month.
Granada Theatre now features a state-of-the-art audio system utilizing a large format digital mixing console and processing from multiple Dolby Lake digital signal processors. The speaker systems consist of a concert level line array speaker technology, a separate proscenium speech-only reinforcement system, and surround sound for on-screen presentations. A LCS electronic acoustic enhancement system serves to augment or revise the existing room acoustical environment from multiple
preset configurations. A multi-channel production communication intercom system was included throughout the building from the catwalks to the new subterranean dressing and green rooms, and connectivity and cabling for touring acts to employ their own portable systems.
AMT established a strong working relationship with the project general contractor Melchiori Constructors, and with the project multi-media consultant Kyle Ridenour of McKay Conant Hoover to assure that the details required to put these systems in place quickly and accurately were understood and accomplished. Opening night, planned months in advance, was an on-time success and the theatre now serves the community from its historic location with its very modern 21st Century media systems.
In the years following the original media system installation, the Granada Theater saw an increase in cinematic presentations at the theater. In order to better accommodate those screenings, the Granada Theater asked AMT Systems to add a cinema audio system with surround sound. In order to maintain the flexibility the theater needs to support the variety of performances they host, AMT mounted the main speakers on stage batons, allowing them to fly in and out as necessary. The early-reflection and artificial reverbs installed in previous phases were incorporated and used to maximize the surround-sound effect.