In 2004, the theatre was forced to close and was on the verge of ceasing its activities, but the Focus Group took charge of bringing it back to life in order to prevent the loss of one of the most emblematic artistic and drama centres in the city.
The refurbishment work executed in the Goya Theatre, which will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2016, is based on building a new theatre within an existing frame. The theatre has a capacity for 520 people, including both the tiered stalls and the amphitheatre. The remodelling project has a cost of 3.7 million euros, of which 2.2 million euros have been put up by the local authorities, through the Barcelona Theatre Rehabilitation Consortium, whose members include Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council and the Ministry of Culture.
As a consequence of the process of renovating the Theatre, Ecler was awarded the contract to install the new sound system. The Spanish firm decided on a combination of Ecler DPA series amplifiers and speaker systems made by the Australian company AT Professional, a brand that is distributed by Ecler throughout Europe on an exclusive basis.
In the Goya Theatre, Ecler has used a sound system that fully satisfies all the needs of a modern theatre, one that offers excellent coverage, with high quality speaker systems, that are compact, discreet and easily camouflaged.
The project includes the latest version of the AT Blackbird Sound Level Prediction software, which makes it possible to achieve precise modelling of the configuration and the Blackbird TLA Line Array sound system's performance.
The system consists of four active filters to obtain increased band-pass fidelity and is designed as PA L+R, plus one central channel. This configuration allows each playing point to be controlled separately, and for each of them to send signals that are processed separately, depending on their specific characteristics. For example, the basic music programme can be played by the PA L+R, and the voice through the central channel.
The pitch of all the loudspeakers is the same and the composition of the PA L+R cluster is as follows: Blackbird TLA306 Line Array systems at each side, one central channel with Blackbird TLA306 Line Array cabinets, two subwoofers at the front of the stage and an additional front fill with 4 x full range AT Professional speakers.
Each lateral line array element consists of eight AT Professional TLA306 cabinets, a three--way design with two powerful neodymium 6.5 transducers.
(Jim Evans)
