To introduce an untried piece of equipment into a successful production might seem risky. When the equipment concerned is central to every audio path, the sound designer could be accused of foolhardiness. But when the addition of new technology means a complete re-think of the entire sound system, isn't this just asking for trouble? Scott Myers, who took the final decision to base his sound design for Lion around the Yamaha PM1D, says not. "I love using new technology - and this show presented an opportunity to put the desk through some pretty intensive testing. Because I'd done this production before, I could try out the Yamaha in relative safety." The console, along with the rest of the audio system, was supplied and engineered by Orbital Sound.

The tiny size of the mixing position required for Lion (a mere eight seats) belies the complexity of the production, but as Myers explained, he was determined to prove that real savings could be made without compromising the audio design: "Jim Douglas, our production sound engineer, just about managed to keep smiling as we moved in. There is literally no room on either side of the board. Sadler's Wells had allocated 18 seats for sound control - by keeping to a tight footprint we have saved the production something like £20,000." Apart from the PM1D's control surface, which communicates with understage racks via 200 metre SCSI and coax connections, the only other occupants of the control area are a MIDI keyboard for manual sound effects and an input/output rack, provided in case the need for front-of-house sources should arise. Myers and the team were pleasantly surprised by the reliability of the PM1D, which had never before been used in anger. "In fact, we did have one hardware fault, during a technical rehearsal," recalled Myers. "One channel didn't work; but in repairing it a wire was broken which caused a much more serious problem. The guys fixed it unbelievably quickly - the second half of the rehearsal went up just five minutes late." One interesting realisation from this was that the Yamaha design uses a large amount of distribution processing - a fault in one area of the console does not affect other signals.

Incorporating the PM1D into the system has reduced the outboard list to nothing. "There are none of the usual BSS or XTA processors and system controllers - all the EQ, delay, dynamics and effects processors and 24 equalisers within the budget for the show." Myers explained that he had not been able to exceed the Yamaha's capabilities - although with a 28-channel radiomic system (which is larger than that which was used by the RSC in Straford and the Barbican) and a multi-instrumental pit band, every one of the console's 96 channels was in use. "We had two weeks' pre-production time with the consoles at Orbital," Myers stated. "Unfortunately, although this helped us to get acquainted with the board and the system, the only time that you really know what is needed is when there's cast waiting for you to get it right!"

The PM1D is running the show using pre-release software; even though Yamaha's R&D department had finished the first full release by the time that Lion opened, it was considered unwise to re-program the desk at the last minute. As a back-up, Orbital had supplied a system that would get the show out of trouble should the worst occur. "We have an O2R coupled to three BSS Soundwebs, which mimic the delay and processors contained in the output section of the PM1D," explained Drew Mollison, who looked after the production for Orbital. "If we had to switch over to the back-up we would have a very simplified set of effects, without the surround feeds, and would be able to get vocals and the band where we need them to be." Additionally, vital foldback mixes are maintained, so that even the unlikely event of a major console problem should not prove a show-stopper.

Working in Sadler's Wells presented Myers with it's own challenge. It is the first time that he has designed a show for the building, and he appeared unimpressed by its design. "This place has one of the strangest acoustics I've ever had to deal with," he explained. "In performance, a huge amount of sound is not lost in the house. I'm not an acoustician - and certainly not an architect - but most sound people would walk in here and wonder why anyone would want to build a theatre that was lined with metal." His difficulties with the room were exacerbated by the short production time in the theatre itself, and limitations on when the sound team could make a noise. "The first time that we really got to hear what the show sounded like was at the first preview - and it was terrible!"

Unusually for a musical, the shallow thrust stage required the removal of the pit - meaning that the 15-piece band was sited upstage right, below the back of the stage rake. This, and the requirement for music loudspeakers in close proximity to give the illusion of a (central) on-stage orchestra, provided some additional headaches. "We've been fairly successful in creating the image that was needed," claimed Myers, who used two upstage stacks of d&b C7 top/C7 sub/E18 cabinets for the upstage localisation, while further C7/B2 combinations in the orchestra proscenium. Vocals were handled by a traditional A/B system (where adjacent radio mics are fed to alternate pairs of speakers to avoid violent phrasing effects), this time using d&b's C6 cabinet, of which Myers is a devotee. The A/B pairs are located in the left and right proscenium and overhead in a centre cluster. Amplification is d&b throughout, with P1200A and P1200AIs feeding the larger enclosure, while the E3 cabinets were driven by E-PACs.

E3 front fills are built into the stage edge, and Myers has used the same cabinet for the circle delays. Sadly, the restricted budget precluded the use of upper circle fills, so Myers adopted part of the in-house system to deal with the upper levels of the theatre. For surround effects, E3s were deployed as lower, upper and rear wall left/right pairs, allowing convincing atmospherics and spot effects. This was one area where Myers had to compromise in order to work on the show's musical content: "The effects took something of a back seat because of the difficulty of getting the upstage orchestra sound right," he explained. "Having said which, Ricardo Van Crugten (no.1 operator and Myers' right hand man during production) understood what I was looking for and we were both hopping round the console within a short time." Myers uses Akai S6000 samplers, keeping each original track seperate to enable him to modify effects in situ. For example, the air-raid siren that heralds the start of the show involves four seperate recordings, which are staggered to enable Myers to lengthen or shorten the effect during rehearsals.

Myers' confidence in van Crugten's judgement is such that, unlike many sound designers, he is happy for his operator to make changes during the show's run. "If the show changes - as it inevitably will - I want him to have the freedom to adjust things for the better."

One facet of this production that will immediately impress the seasoned West End theatre-goer is the natural vocal sound of he spoken word. Far from having to acclimatise to the sound of over-amplified voices, the audience is left completely convinced that spoken parts are not reinforced at all. At Sadler's Wells, as at the National Theatre, this is an extremely sensitive issue; but, as Drew Mollison points out, the original intention was not to reinforce actors' voices. "We did not want to have the cast leaning too heavily on their microphones - but because they started from a point where they had no help, everyone on stage is working very hard to project. The only reason that we have to add a very small amount of 'lift' is that the audience (consisting mainly of children) is a noisy one."

It is a challenge to stage a show where the original story is on almost every bookself in the land. It was therefore imperative to assist the audience's suspension of disbelief by providing a thoroughly plausible and enveloping audio image. This was achieved with a degree of subtlety not often seen in musical theatre - a tribute to Myers and the Orbital Sound team, who could so easily have fallen into the trap of treating The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as just another kids' Christmas panto.