By positioning sixty special pods in the physical shape of the Philharmonic Orchestra and feeding the sound of individual instruments to each pod, the system enables visitors to listen to the different sounds of the respective musical instruments that comprise the orchestra.
The Royal Festival Hall turned to Audio Design Services of Stockport to configure a way of creating an amplifier for each pod position without the need to house 60 separate amplifiers. It was also necessary to provide high quality loudspeakers in the pods to faithfully reproduce the original sound of the respective instruments and yet come within a tight budget.
Audio Design used eight Cloud amplifiers each with eight modular 40W amplifiers, providing adequate power to cover all orchestra positions - this enabled the whole system to be contained within a reasonable rack space. The use of sensitive Sonodine high power ceiling loudspeakers provided the realistic reproduction of sound that was required.
Whilst the feeds to the installation were achieved by some clever electronic and computing techniques, the basic system produced by Audio Design provided the realism that was required. David Hopkins, chairman of Audio Design, said that his company seemed to have gained a reputation for solving difficult sound distribution problems. Jude Kelly, director of the South Bank Centre, said the initiative had been "an unqualified success".
(Jim Evans)
