Yet another manic comedy season is underway at the iconic Pleasance Theatre and Gilded Balloon venues.

At Pleasance, where Orbital is a formal Production Partner and has been working with the team for over 20 years, a huge cross-section of high-end audio equipment is working hard for its living – 18 hours a day. Stars of the show for 2014 include an extensive complement of d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker systems – including T-Series. The Pleasance venues use d&b audiotechnik almost exclusively, providing consistent quality within all the spaces and streamlining the technical elements.

On the mixer front, Yamaha's CL5 runs operation in The Grand, and several venues are debuting Yamaha's QL series this year. A busy year RF wise, with over 40 channels in use on Pleasance's courtyard site alone.

At The Gilded Balloon, the team has equipped the myriad of venues within the student union building with a host of kit, including a CL5 console and Rio racks in the "debating hall" where the now infamous, "Late and Live" takes place every night. A plethora of LS9-16's work hard in all of their medium sized rooms, helping the 12 acts per day move seamlessly in and out every hour.

With just 6 days for the load-in and tech period, the Orbital and Gilded Balloon teams work closely to turn what is pretty much an empty shell into a fully functional home to a wide cross-section of venues – from the 350-seat Debating Hall, the 120-seat Dining Room and the Nightclub, to the Turret and Wee Room with just 50 seats each. In 2013, they adopted a fully d&b audiotechnik approach for the first time, and have built on this further for 2014.

All 9 rooms are fully spec'd with d&b speakers giving even coverage to all the rooms, whatever shape or size! New to this year is a re-design of the Dining Room sound system, Gilded Balloon's "theatrical" venue giving visiting sound designers greater control and better coverage for the space.