The Musikhuset is the premier concert venue in Denmark's second city, Aarhus; what Adel had idealised in his mind's ear for the venue was, for want of any other description, the V-Series line array from d&b audiotechnik, a system only recently launched at prolight+sound in Frankfurt 2012. "We have been using d&b systems in this venue for more than 25 years. We were one of the first houses to purchase an F2/B1 system and have the legendaryF1220 loudspeakers which we used for near-fill. Later we were the first to buy Q-Series, the serial numbers run 001 through 006 and Q7 001 and002. Now we are the first house in Europe to install the V-Series."
As Adel and the concert hall's technical director Jonas Knive took delivery of their new V system in early April, they were at the same time waving a nostalgic goodbye to the F1220s. "They were still working fine and still running off the original amplifiers," said Lars Frederiksen from alfa audio the Danish Distributor for d&b audiotechnik. "The amps predate the A1, a big beast 4u deep; apartfrom replacing some ageing capacitors they hadn't been touched in all that time."
"Now for the next month or two I will be working at fine tuning," continued Adel. "This is a difficult room and it takes time. The main problem is that it is quite wide and at the same time there is a very big level difference from front to back. The three levels of the orchestra pit; down, flat to the stalls floor and fitted with seats, or raised as a stage extension, means I have a lot of work to do with the front-fills."
"We officially launched the new system in May with a concert by James Taylor immediately followed by the Spot Festival, a festival of contemporary music from all over Scandinavia; so a good variety of source material. What do I think of the system? I mixed a couple of the Spot acts myself and found it really responds very,very fast. Just the smallest adjustment at the fader, or change in EQ, and you hear it immediately; even as you move the fader or pot, it's there right away.
The system supplied by alfa and installed by Adel and his house team comprises a V12 centre-hang, a V8 and V12 combination hung left and right, with a set of V-SUBs flown immediately behind."
(Jim Evans)
