The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) is the first and only '6 Star Green Star' environmentally-rated convention centre in the world, and Australia's largest and most versatile convention and exhibition facility.
As such, one of the primary objectives for the complex is to showcase pioneering technology which enhances a world-class convention centre encompassing 32 meeting rooms of various sizes, a Grand Banquet Room and a state-of-the-art Plenary that can be sub-divided into three self-contained theatres.
The extensive audio-visual installation draws upon different models of power amplifier from the German manufacturer CAMCO to provide a super-flexible operational functionality. PA systems have been built into every meeting room of the convention centre which, together with new self-prompting 'smart lecterns', offer event organisers and guest speakers unprecedented self-management capabilities, all monitored in-house via centralised or satellite control rooms.
For the main facilities of the Melbourne Convention Centre, the design premise was to install the highest category of industry-standard pro-audio equipment to encourage visiting clients to utilise the in-house systems. The very flexibility of the room configurations set the biggest challenge. It was essential that the Plenary Hall could be operated as a single 5,553 capacity theatre, as well as being sub-divisible into three entirely independent, acoustically-separate theatres, one with capacity for 2,569 delegates and two for up to 1,507 delegates each.
CAMCO Vortex, Tecton and Q-Power amplifiers have been specified to power the concert sound system in the Plenary, where the main front-of-house concert system is a substantial line array design, with directional sub-bass, and a large number of fill speakers to address the balcony and under-balcony areas. Designed with eight separate arrays, the system can be adapted for different modes of operation by a simple preset recall within the audio processors. A flexible mixing console system can be patched from simple show mixing setups to full production setups, with separate front of house, recording and stage monitor consoles, running on a redundant optical network.
CAMCO's export sales director Mick Anderson offers his own take on eco-friendly power amplifiers. "All CAMCO products conform to CE / C-Tick / EC Declarations of Conformity and Directives for standards of Security, Emission, Immunity, RoHS. With a manufacturing and product design principle set firmly within the realms of using technology to maximise process and result, CAMCO has always taken a very active stance with regards to all related "green" issues.
"Considerable time and effort is given to the design and production of our finished goods, while at the same time we pay close attention to how component parts are made and source. We care about our manufacturing procedures and we care about our world, and we try to maintain a balance between the two."
(Jim Evans)
