Simon Nathan, owner of Audio Production Services of Amawalk, NY, worked closely with Dan Dryden, FOH engineer for the Philip Glass Ensemble, to design the sound system for the event.
"Because Avery Fisher hall is home to the Philharmonic, it doesn't have an in-house system that could handle this performance," explains Nathan. "We were asked to provide a high quality system that could cover the entire hall without impeding any stage site lines and provide clean, consistent sound throughout the room."
The choice was the compact RCF TT+ Series, with single arrays each comprised of 10 TTL31-A modules flown left and right, attached to the overhead stage grid.
"When specifying systems for the ensemble I'm looking for smaller line arrays with flat frequency response," explains Dryden. "These were perfect. The low-mid frequencies are rich and warm, and the coverage was excellent."
The overall footprint of these arrays was relatively small, measuring just less than two feet wide by only about 10ft deep. The self-powered, two-way active line array modules are outfitted with a single-8-inch cone driver and three compression drivers feeding a horn with horizontal dispersion of 100 degrees. They proved capable of covering all four levels of seating (main and three balconies) as well as boxes.
"When specifying systems for the Ensemble I'm looking for smaller line arrays with flat frequency response," says Dryden. "These were perfect. The low-mid frequencies are rich and warm and the coverage was excellent. I was very pleased with the result."
The mains were joined by four TTS56-A dual 21-inch subwoofers, two side-by-side on each side of the stage, and each of these sub sets hosted a single TT25 compact powered loudspeaker supplying in-fill presence, particularly for higher frequencies. The house loudspeaker complement was completed with front-fill via four TT052-A low-profile 2-way loudspeakers deployed evenly along the front lip of the stage.
"The hall seats 2,800 with three balconies and box seats - it is a very large room," adds Nathan. "The arrays had no problem throwing all of the way to the back row of the top balcony without any need for delay fills. We had plenty of power for the space."
"This system was right up there with its more well-known competitors," Dryden concludes. "I will be adding it to my riders for future Philip Glass Ensemble events - I would definitely use it again."
(Jim Evans)
