Montreal's City Hall, which was re-built in 1922 within the shell of its original walls after the original structure was destroyed by fire, is modelled after the city hall of the French city of Tours, and is designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
The two contradictory objectives were reconciled thanks to the efforts of Grant Ritchie, Mike Davidson and Mark Dunn of Contact Distribution, who demonstrated Iconyx IC7 Steerable Arrays from Renkus-Heinz to the building's engineering staff. IC7s are cost-effective self-powered linear arrays that use individual driver control to deliver precisely shaped beams of sound with factory-programmed pre-sets.
The City of Montreal has acquired six IC7s for use in the Hall of Honour, an ante-room that is used for ceremonial occasions. The IC7s have been able to deliver natural, intelligible speech and music, satisfying all concerned. The natural character of these speakers was highlighted during a visit from a Japanese delegation, which featured a performance on the koto.
"Once the microphone was in place," a City of Montreal technician reports, "we received a 'thumbs up' from a member of the delegation. He told us that it is extremely rare to hear this instrument properly represented by a PA system."
(Jim Evans)
