Wolstad and sound design colleague Jonas Vest worked closely with Out Board's Robin Whittaker to create an SOR-based sound system design to supply unobtrusive and subtle amplification with accurate audio image localisation and hence good intelligibility for all audience members.
Two rows of five d&b horn-loaded full-range cabinets provide the main reinforcement to the circular auditorium, supported by Tannoy NXT flat panel front fills with a further 32 NXTs under the balconies as delays and for surround effects. Additional d&b's cover the rear upper and side balconies plus some more on stage for first-wavefront support and deep upstage sound effects. A large format Studer Vista 5 console routes all microphone and playback sources via AES3 into a 16-in/32-out TiMax audio imaging processor, which in turn feeds the multi-channel distributed loudspeaker system.
The effect of focusing the system onto multiple sound sources is achieved by defining a number of localisation zones on stage and in the auditorium and then delay-mapping these image definition origins independently to each of the loudspeakers and the seating areas they cover.
The TiMax matrix and software can then statically or dynamically pan sound sources to multiple locations around the stage or house, continuously varying delay times so that the Haas precedence effect maintains good imaging for the whole audience. Notably, Det Kongelige is also one of several recent TiMax installations fitted with new proprietary smooth-panning firmware algorithms which enhance the transparency of the delay-panning process by eliminating any glitching or phasing artifacts, says the company.
Sound effects content is handled by TiMax Soundtablet editing, playback and waveform-based panning functions which are embedded within the TiMax showcontrol software, triggered either manually or by external MIDI or SMPTE control from the Studer console.
(Jim Evans)
