d&b systems installed in De Factorij
- Details
With quality, diversity and inclusivity at the heart of the venue’s vision for the local community, the management required “fast and efficient” control of its technical systems, audio included. Belgian systems integrator and audio specialist Amptec, already installing the cabling infrastructure for the new venue, was also asked to design and implement the sound reinforcement system for the main theatre.
Despite the excellent natural acoustics of the main auditorium, the room’s design presented some challenges when it came to sound reinforcement. Frank Geerts of Amptec says: “As a venue it’s quite unusual: the auditorium is not very deep, but large and high, with very steep audience seating. And in the middle of that audience plane is the big window of the projector booth.”
Faced with these challenges, Amptec’s engineers chose a d&b audiotechnik Y-Series system, designing the initial configurations using the d&b ArrayProcessing software. “Before ArrayProcessing was available,” says Geerts, “our experience with line arrays was that you can’t get an even frequency distribution in that kind of space; a point source system may have been the best solution. But with ArrayProcessing, you have the guarantee that you will have the control needed to work around these issues with the space.”
De Factorij’s Dries D’Hondt, an experienced live sound engineer, says: “There are some difficulties in the venue, because you have a projection space with a vertical wall, so we used the ArrayProcessing to get rid of the reflections there, and it really works.”
In finalising the design and the final installation, the team at Amptec were supported by d&b at every stage. Geerts says: “On the design phase, we coordinated with d&b, to get a second opinion. The guys from d&b Education & Application Support are really great with that. No two venues are the same; there are always considerations. It comes down to the experience that you have, so why not combine as much experience as you can?”
The main Theatre system includes eight d&b Yi8, two Yi12 and three YiSUBs in each main left and right hang, with additional low frequency support from a pair of VG-SUBs each side. Yi10P and Yi7P cabinets provide down-fill and out-fill, with E5 cabinets delivering front-fill from the stage lip. The main system is powered by nine d&b 30D amplifiers. Also provided are twelve d&b M4 stage monitors.
While the d&b R1 remote interface is the primary control over the PA system, the venue’s “fast and efficient” requirement meant an additional interface was necessary. Amptec’s solution involved a custom-designed touchscreen offering selection of simple presets drawn from an industrial PLC [Programmable Logic Controller] from automation specialist Beckhoff.
For the cinema system, Amptec installed an additional surround system of 10 d&b 8S loudspeakers powered by two d&b 10D amplifiers. A cinema sound processor provides Dolby or DTS surround sound to reach the Dante network. Consoles and amplifiers are connected to redundant CISCO switches and four d&b DS10 Audio network bridges.
(Jim Evans)
