The new system is designed for semi-permanent installation in the venue's main room, as well as allowing flexible deployment in other spaces, and comprises a central hang of seven d&b audiotechnik T-10 enclosures, plus two ground-stacked d&b E15X-SUBs, per side. Key selection criteria included configuration flexibility and scalability, as well as exceptional sound quality.
The venue's brief called for a system with the smallest practical complement of loudspeakers necessary to achieve excellent quality of sound in the Grand Hall, its largest room, with a 500+ capacity. An additional requirement was the ability to re-deploy some of the loudspeakers in other performance spaces in the 70-room complex, while leaving a thoroughly workable system in the Grand Hall for smaller events and spoken-word reinforcement. The installation forms part of a restoration and refurbishment programme, which includes improvements to the venue's technical infrastructure, as well as work on key architectural features such as its octagonal glass dome.
Philip Bentley, technical manager at Battersea Arts Centre, explained, "We researched various options before making our decision, but it was the sheer flexibility and scalability of the T-Series that won the day, in addition to its sound quality. Overall, going the d&b route with the T-10 system gave us more control than with the other systems we compared - the design's inherent line-array and point-source options simply offered us a lot more for our money.
"We can use the new loudspeakers in an array format, or divide them up into smaller point-source systems, enabling us to cover simultaneous events in a number of rooms. For example, we had to set up the Council Chamber in a 150-seat cinema configuration recently, and were able to use five of the T-10s per side in L&R hangs, with two of the subs. This left the remaining units as a point-source system in the Grand Hall, ready for other events. This degree of deployment flexibility is key to our longer-term planning, as it gives us the facility to expand our complement of T-Series in affordable stages, safe in the knowledge that the system components are inter-compatible, and can therefore be used around our building in multiple permutations and combinations."
Sound designer Ed Clarke was responsible for the design of Little Bulb Theatre's Orpheus, employing every aspect of the new system to achieve the critically acclaimed results. He commented, "Orpheus was a deceptively complex piece of theatre - a seven-piece band, eight actors using radios, and with the style varying between 1930s Paris Cabaret, grand opera and French romantic classical. And the baroque organ! It was always going to be particularly tricky in the Grand Hall, as the company were using so much of the space - not simply the stage, but also coming down some considerable distance into the auditorium. I needed a system that would cope with gentle, unobtrusive vocal reinforcement, as well as really quite loud amplification of the organ."
Orbital Sound's system design for Battersea Arts Centre included the necessary mounting and rigging hardware to cover the various re-deployment scenarios, with typically three of the d&b T-10 units being used per side on a cluster bracket, pole-mounted from a E15X-SUB. Three d&b au
