Sir,

May I reply to the rather strange letter from Mark

Elliot (Beacon 17/9/08) re the Savoy Sound., and examine

it paragraph by paragraph.

He says he was employed by the theatre until 1997,

that was 11 years ago, and the world (apart from Mr Elliot)

has moved on, so hardly the starting point to criticise

what is happening today.

Next he talks about the previous incumbent not

applying for the "Three Towns Initiative" and how the

money would have made all the difference. It would but

only if you were successful. As anyone who has ever

applied for any grant will tell you, because of all the

applications, you are more likely to receive a rejection

than the sum of money requested.

I cannot of course comment on what was or was not

happening at the theatre in years gone by but we have not

experienced anything other than the occasional behaviour

problem from young persons, in fact we are soon to start

a Saturday morning club for young people and the Savoy

Youth Theatre perform here regularly. Perhaps it's a

matter of his attitude?

Now we come to the biggest flight of fancy. He

assumes, assumes mark you, that the two speakers

shown in a photograph are for cinema sound and

proceeds to build a technical diatribe on this assumption.

They are used for live theatre only, which didn't happen in

his day. Therefore his whole theory is incorrect. Had he

even bothered to look inside the theatre he would see that

we have 6 surround sound speakers and behind the screen

3 x KCSSI 1801 speakers. Had he read my reply to Miss

Ellaway he would know that even these are being replaced

with 12 Wharfedale 30D surround speakers and a new FP-

18400 sub bass. These are being installed by Future

Projections, a London based company, who incidentally,

installed the equipment in his much vaunted ABC Newport

(now closed).

This gives a total lie to his last paragraph that Dolby

sound is not installed in the Savoy, it is, and has been for

the last 3 years, and will now be getting even better.

I don't know, and indeed don't want to know, what

happened over 10 years ago, but there is obviously 'sour

grapes' there. The only thing that does matter is that we

serve the people of Monmouth and continue to give them

great entertainment and enjoyment at the only cinema in

Monmouthshire.

Vic Bignell

(Chair of trustees)