Managed and operated by SMG Europe, the Barbican recently reopened after a major £2m investment, and for their new in-house sound system, they went straight to local firm JSS Audio. The Barbican's technical team approached JSS's Jem Walker with their wish-list, knowing that with JSS's track record of consistently delivering top notch sound there for a wide roster of events, they could rely on Walker to recommend what he considered to be the best solution.
JSS immediately turned to their Lab.gruppen-powered HK Audio Cohedra Compact line array system when asked to demo their proposed solution.
With extensive experience of using their 'CoCo' in all types of venues and across most musical genres, JSS knew it would be suitable for the diverse programme requirements of York Barbican. With the demo gig more than proving the sonic credentials and practical suitability to all concerned, an order soon followed for a front-of-house system comprising 16 CDR108 mid/hi enclosures (flown eight per side) and eight CDR210C subs (with two per side flown above the mid/his, supplemented by a further two per side on the ground).
The Barbican also purchased a number of HK's ConTour Series enclosures, with six CT108 enclosures deployed as front and outer-fills, and six CT115 enclosures serving as stage monitors. These also provide the flexibility to be configured as fill enclosures for more demanding applications.
Control for the entire system is provided by two FIRNET system controllers, featuring HK's new FirSoft software control platform. All amplification is courtesy of Lab.gruppen's FP+ Series, with the entire system powered by just 4 FP10000Qs and an FP6000Q four-channel amplifier.
Jem Walker of JSS Audio said, "The combination of Lab.gruppen and HK Audio Compact Cohedra has been tried and tested by JSS Audio for some time, so the decision to offer this system was not difficult. We had to comply with the Barbican Centre's requirements and work to a budget. This was done and the Barbican now have a Public Address system they can be proud of."
Andrew Hunter, York Barbican's technical manager, added, "We were trying to find a system that was within our budget, but also completely flexible to our needs. It needed to be a self-contained system that was up and out of the way, but always had to be available - and that's what we got. I've only used the HK Cohedra system at two or three shows so far, and we're still getting used to everything it can do, but we're absolutely happy with it."
(Jim Evans)
