Like the original gallery, the Sackler sits next to the Serpentine lake from which both venues take their name, but the newer gallery, which opened in Autumn 2013, is on the north side of the bridge and is envisaged as a space for the display of cutting-edge works that will complement and contrast with those on view in the original gallery.
The Magazine, as the building now housing the Serpentine Sackler is called, a former gunpowder store dating from the Napoleonic Wars, was comprehensively refurbished from 2009 to 2013 by a team led by Zaha Hadid Architects, following many decades as a humble store for park maintenance equipment. The resulting arts space incorporates a new extension in Hadid's inimitable curved style that houses a restaurant and contrasts excitingly with the fluted columns and classical high Palladian style of the Magazine's original structure.
Inside, the gallery consists of a continuous corridor arranged in a square around the Magazine's original twin barrel-vaulted powder stores. Arup Associates were engaged to specify the audio systems in the new gallery, the requirements being to provide a PA/VA system for the dissemination of visitor announcements, paging calls, and emergency messages, as well as sound reinforcement for visiting artists and any exhibitions installed at the gallery that incorporate an audio element. Being part of a top international art gallery, however, it was essential that the system be as visually unobtrusive as possible, so as not to detract from the works on display.
A team from RG Jones Sound Engineering, led by Jake Miller, installed the chosen sound reinforcement system, which, after much discussion between Arup and RG Jones, comprised the QSC Q-Sys audio management system based around a Core 250i processor, together with a QSC TSC-8 touch panel mounted in a bespoke paging station with a gooseneck announcement microphone, which can be plugged into two possible locations and currently resides in the Gallery's administration office.
Q-Sys manages an array of Lab.gruppen amps driving Amina flat-panel speakers plastered into the walls of the corridor running around the outside of the gallery, and several extremely discreet K-Array KZ10 speakers and subwoofers in the twin vaulted powder rooms at the heart of the Gallery. Audio playback in the gallery can now be divided into six zones via Q-Sys if needed, and there are six input points around the gallery to allow the connection of a radio mic for sound reinforcement of exhibition guide commentary or visiting artist speeches as required. A mini-jack input on the custom paging station also allows the connection of an iPod or other audio source for exhibitions that require continuous audio backing or atmospheres.
This was RG Jones' first installation using Q-Sys. "Arup had suggested it on the list of possible equipment, and although we have tended to use other systems for audio management in the past, we had heard a lot about Q-Sys and become very keen to learn more about what it could do," explains Jake Miller. "I was interested in using the virtual paging in Q-Sys Manager to create the multiple zones and DSP front end on the paging station, and that proved very easy to do. I also like the QLAN concept of having audio and control capability available on the same standard network cable.
"Finally, the Core 250i's onboard DSP was also very useful in allowing us to get the best possible sound out of the K-Array and Amina speakers; the KZ10s in particular, due to their very compact dimensions. Obviously, in an installation like this, the aesthetics of the system are key; you don't want lots of equipment visible everywhere, so the speakers ha
