As Korea’s largest island, Jeju has been the country’s favourite domestic holiday
destination for years thanks to its beautiful beaches, luxurious countryside and its
theatre for Nanta, a hugely popular South Korean non-verbal comedy show
incorporating traditional percussion. Now visitors to Jeju Theatre can enjoy the show
even more, thanks to world-class acoustics delivered by a range of APG loudspeakers.
Nanta premiered in Seoul in 1997 and has been staged in 18 countries, including on
Broadway. The show, run by PMC Production, is performed daily in four Seoul
theatres, making it the longest-running show in Korean history. Built exclusively for
Nanta performances, the 659-seat Jeju Theatre has welcomed over one million
visitors since its opening in 2008 and was due for an audio upgrade to provide the
best sonic experience to its audience.
The musical has a simple back story of three cooks attempting to finish preparing a
wedding banquet within a strict time limit while the manager installs his incompetent
nephew among the kitchen staff. The show involves acrobatics, magic tricks, comedy,
pantomime and audience participation.
Korean integrator Soundplace was appointed to refurbish the theatre with a new
system audio. The theatre and auditorium specialist selected a full APG setup for this
project. “For the Nanta shows, the traditional samul nori music is performed with
improvised instruments such as cutting boards, water canisters and kitchen knives, so
the sound is at the very heart of this hugely popular musical’, commented Sangwoo
Do, CEO of Soundplace. “PMC Production wanted to immerse the audience in the show
to rejuvenate the experience.’
Soundplace installed two clusters of line arrays in L/R configuration, each comprising
of two APG UL115B bass speakers, five UL210 top speakers and one TB218S
subwoofer. Multipurpose DX15 coaxial speakers cover as infill on each side of the
stage, while a further two ultra-compact MX0 coaxial loudspeakers reinforce first
ranks as front fills.
Gregory Dapsanse, marketing and business development director at APG, praised the
quality of the integration. “Soundplace successfully achieved an efficient sound design
and great tuning despite a big challenge: in such a mid-size venue, the system has to
be compact and discrete while providing enough SLP with large headroom to reflect
the huge dynamic range from the percussions. Because of the nearby walls, the
Uniline directivity control was critical to avoid reflections and ensure high intelligibility
and sonic precision all the way to the last row,’ he states.
“We have been working with APG since 2014, and we have always been impressed by
the capacity of their speakers to reproduce a “pure’ sound that truly represents the
vocals and instruments. The Uniline range is particularly interesting as it provides
great sound control within a compact size’, concluded Sangwoo Do.
