"My job was to deliver products so that the venue can do its business successfully," says Archie McIntosh, director of VMS Live, who the Mama Group brought in to oversee the Forum's refurbishment. "I've used Turbosound Aspect in other projects and it was good to have the chance to use it in such a wonderful venue as the Forum."
The main front of house system comprises both ground stacked and flown elements. Four Aspect TA-880L low frequency, three TA-880H mid/highs and two TSW-218 subs per side are complemented by a pair of TA-500 Aspect Wide cabinets for in-fills. The flown elements comprise four TA-880H per side to cover the balcony, beneath which are hung four NuQ-15 as under balcony delays.
Meanwhile, 12 NuQ-15 cabinets are used for stage monitoring, complemented by two TA-880L and two TA-500 as side- fills. "I'm very happy with the system," says Luca Rosa, the Forum's technical manager. "It's got the best bottom end of all the PAs I've listened to in my entire career. The bass from the ground-stacked TSW-218s is so efficient that it covers the balcony as well, so there's no need for additional bass boxes up there."
He continues: "The coverage throughout the room is very satisfying, every spot sounds the same and it's very clear, there's no distortion at all. And the NuQ-15s are beautiful speakers. They're very crisp sounding and perfect for vocal monitors."
Further Turbosound loudspeakers - four NuQ-8, four NuQ-10, four NuQ-15 and two TXD-252 are installed as a distributed system throughout the venue, providing further fills and sound reinforcement in the room at the back of the venue, where DJ sets and parties regularly take place.
"We can drive the band sound to anywhere in the venue, but we can also have it the other way," says Rosa. "We can have a DJ in the back room and route the sound all round the Forum."
Powered by nine Turbosound T-45 and seven T-25 amplifiers, with six LMS-D24 and four LMS-D26 digital controllers, the entire system is controlled using Biamp Systems daVinci software via a Nexia digital audio bus.
"We're running the Turbosound controllers on the same network infrastructure as the Nexia and we have a touch screen at Front of House, where we can run either the Nexia software for system routing / volume control or Turbosound's TurboDrive software to change the setting on the controllers - gains, limiters, EQ, everything," says Rosa.
"I should also add that the amps are very light and the rack looks brilliant," Luca continues. Because the system doesn't need many amplifiers the rack doesn't take up much space, which is another great improvement over the previous system."
Paul Buxton, the Forum's general business manager adds: "This is a vast improvement over what we had before. One of the problems that bands, promoters and production managers all previously had with the Forum was the sound, but now they think it's one of the finer points of the venue."
(Jim Evans)
