Chemtrol, a leading Spanish audiovisual design and contracting company, created and installed the audio system. Chemtrol División Teatro (theatre division) has vast experience with prestige installations of this type. Since 1987 they have been involved in projects such as the Palacio de las Artes, Valencia, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Teatro Real de Madrid, Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao and numerous other top level venues.
Fernando García Carrión, manager of audiovisual systems at Chemtrol División Teatro, was in charge of the design and installation and his expressed intention from the outset was to maximise performance through the choice of only tried and tested brands. For the audio system he selected products from manufacturers including EAW, Lab.gruppen and Dolby Lake, all supplied by their Spanish distributor PRO3 & Co, who collaborated throughout with technical support.
"I've known and trusted these audio products for years," says Carrión. "With the complexity of modern A/V designs it's essential to me to know that what you read in the specs is what you'll get in reality, time after time. A multipurpose venue like this requires flexibility and one of the key reasons I chose the Lab.gruppen C Series was their Voltage Peak Limiter feature that allows tailoring of output to exactly match the load. And the NomadLink network was easy to install, fast to configure and provides vital performance data and sequential turn on. All are great assets to the system's performance."
The main loudspeaker systems are EAW, and comprise of KF 730 line arrays with 18 units being used in the auditorium and 18 in the experimental theatre. Power for the 730's is Lab.gruppen C Series throughout, and the amplifiers are controlled and monitored remotely via the NomadLink network and DeviceControl software. Audio distribution for the entire venue was achieved with NetCIRA by Fostex, which allows the provision of real-time multi-channel audio over Ethernet.
Dolby Lake LP4D12 (4 x 12) Processors are installed in the auditorium and the experimental theatre. The processor's digital loudspeaker and equalisation technology, allows simple control, monitoring and management of the loudspeaker systems while simultaneously maximising the sound quality.
(Jim Evans)
