The renovation of the REX, an ancient cinema into a modern theatre, has recently been finished. During the works, Amptec accounted for all audio. The renewed Rex was officially opened in the last weekend of February.

In 2003, the theatre Rex had to be closed after a negative security report of the fire-brigade. After more than 5 years, the ancient cinema was completely renewed. The renewal itself took 22 months.

Theatre Rex is equipped with a brand-new audio installation of the German company d&b-audiotechnik. Thanks to the excellent experiences of the technicians with d&b in ‘t Getouw, another theatre in Geel, they and the engineering bureau agreed on opting again for d&b. Thus, Amptec provided the PA, consisting of 2 flying Qi7s, on the right and on the left. This compact but nevertheless powerful tweeters were completed with two E12-tops as a delay. Four Q-subs on stage fill in the bass in addition to two E12D front fills for the two first rows of the gradin. For the highest balcony, two E8s were flown to obtain a perfect speech intelligibility.

The true power of the installation can be found in the D6 and D12 amplifiers, also products from d&b. The D6 and D12 dispose of a integrated controller with which a complete installation can be steered and organized. Not only delay, eq, speaker processing but also the extensive safety system and the error signaling are being steered from this controller. All amplifiers are connected with a computer network; in that way all these parameters can be controlled via the R1, the controlling software of d&b.
When the stage of Theatre Rex is made smaller, so that more spectators can be attend the event, the Q-subs and E12Ds too will slide automatically backwards. The adaptation in leveling and delay which is needed for this, can be done with one single push by using this remote control.

Cabling was another job Amptec did for the new theatre. In the central patch, all audio, video and network lines from the entire building come together. Multi connectors of Link make a fast and simple connection possible for the mixing table in the audience as well for the mixing table on stage. The efficient and user-friendly approach of Amptec in cabling projects such as Ancienne Belgique (Brussels), Flagey (Brussels) and the CC in Geel, was decisive for the contractor to engage Amptec -with its experience in audio-cabling- as subcontractor.

‘We are extremely happy with the result. Rex has become a modern, comfortable theatre hall. Rex will mainly be used for theatre performances and sitting concerts’, says Rit Kerstens, municipal councilor in charge of culture of the Antwerp town Mol.