The Kölcsey Centre includes three buildings, a Congress Centre, a Hotel and a Museum. The Congress Centre, in which Interton designed and installed all of the sound and video systems, contains a large auditorium with seating for 1,100 people, a ballroom, eight partitioned rooms and a multifunctional ballroom / exhibition space as well as a small AV studio and an impressive entrance foyer. The complexity of the project was summed up by Dr Géza Balogh, technical manager of Interton, "The building 'ate' more than 30km of AV cabling. We installed more than 350 loudspeakers driven by over 40,000W of amplification power, 13 projectors with brightness up to 10,000 ANSI Lumens and an interpretation system for up to 600 delegates."
The large auditorium forms the centre-piece of the project and it was intended by the designer that it should have a system capable of changing the room acoustics by the means of electro acoustical tools. After testing various solutions, Interton's DCR (Digital Control of Reverberation) system was selected. The company developed this through the combination of their knowledge of electronics, acoustics and electro acoustics and it was the first of its kind in Hungary capable of changing room acoustics by electronics.
The DCR system is capable of altering the reverberation time of auditorium from 1 to 2.5 seconds in 5 steps, providing the optimal reverberation for all the various genres of music. It has been welcomed by musicians and the public alike. It consists of 26 special AKG microphones and 40 loudspeakers with accompanying amplification. Using a Crestron touch panel the reverberation time can be altered in seconds.
The large auditorium is fan shaped, and the size and shape of the stage can be altered. There is therefore no proscenium or proscenium arch and the three main speaker clusters (LRC) are hung above the stage from the ceiling. The system selection was ultimately determined by the need for a very high SPL whilst minimising the size of the clusters themselves as well as requiring 135 degree horizontal coverage for the fanned shape of the room.
Community's SLS915, the smallest member of the Solutions range, proved to be the answer. Each cluster contains three SLS915s to achieve the required 135 degree coverage. Four SBS25 subwoofers are located near the back walls. This configuration provides a total SPL >110dB, with a wide frequency response range of 30Hz to 18kHz. SLS 915s are also used for side and rear sound and Community's Cloud12s are used for ceiling sound. Monitor and mobile speakers come in the form of Community TD212s and XP505s.
All the speakers are driven by Toa's IP-series power amplifiers, remotely monitored from the control room via a PC. Yamaha's PM5D provides mixing for all live events and headphones and microphones contain a large selection of AKG products.
The Ballroom acts as a multifunctional area for the building. Balls, live performances and concerts, as well as exhibitions can all be held there. Because the RT is higher than in the auditorium (around two seconds), more special FOH speaker clusters were installed. Each cluster consists of two Community SLS915s and an SBS22, providing good STI against the higher RT. Surround sound comes from Community CPL42s and ceiling speakers. The Ballroom also has its own control room with a similar configuration to the Auditorium.
Géza Balogh says: "The AV systems in the Kölcsey Congress Centre have been working for almost four months now. The Centre is used continuously for different cultural events, demonstrating that the city of Debrecen really needed such a cultural centre and also proving that the techn
