Since the Grand Hall is such an important space, it was decided that a new sound system would provide the degree of flexibility required. However, initial plans included a system made up of almost 20 loudspeakers - something that would have seriously affected the aesthetics of this historical venue.
Diego Noack, procurement manager of audio specialists G. Fleischhauer ing. Büro Cottbus GmbH, suggested Tannoy's award-winning digital beam steering loudspeaker array, QFlex. He had been aware of the architecturally sensitive profile and its ability to distribute smooth, even coverage in acoustically challenging spaces, and after some careful modelling, he decided upon the QFlex 40, with one speaker either side enough to fill the Grand Hall.
"With only a pair of speakers we could keep the historical flair of the hall," said Noack when commenting on the success of the project. "Once installed, the QFlex system seemed to blend with the architecture very well. As well as that, it sounds great, and we even achieved better speech intelligibility than with conventional loudspeakers systems."
As Tannoy was providing the main system in the form of QFlex, Noack and his team went with further Tannoy solutions for supplemental spaces, including a balcony area and meeting room spaces.
"We used two CMS 401 DCE Eyeballs as fills for the sub-rank and 2 x i7 loudspeakers for the balcony. The Grand Hall is used for meetings of delegates, but it is also sometimes used as an event-location or even for theatre. There are also two further meeting rooms, which we equipped with a pair i7 each. We went with the same brand as it was important for us to retain the same sonic qualities throughout."
(Jim Evans)
