Warsaw cultural centre installs L-Acoustics L-ISA
- Details
The venue’s name, which references a popular 1980’s Polish television series, Alternatywy 4, was selected through a competition amongst residents and encapsulated the centre’s vision of offering a rich and varied cultural programme for the entire community. Crucial to achieving its goal and pivotal to the project's success was the audio system design featuring breakthrough technology in the form of L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound - specified and installed by Audio Plus.
“The South-West Warsaw community had waited a long time for a decent cultural centre,” says Łukasz Kaźmierczak, system design and project manager at Audio Plus. “It was a very personal project for me because I live next door. When we found out that this was also a crucial project for the city, we immediately knew the cutting-edge L-ISA technology would be a perfect fit. We introduced it, and it was exactly what the investor was looking for.”
The development cost 21.4m Polish Zloty (4.5m Euro), and boasts 3,400sq.m spread over three storeys, comprising a gallery, music club, a complex of teaching rooms, and a multifunctional room suitable for hosting events and dance training. The jewel in the crown is the 350-capacity Szekspir (Shakespeare) theatre with state-of-the-art stage and dressing room facilities whose cutting-edge infrastructure belies its traditional theatre architectural roots
Provisions for the sound system were factored in during the building construction stage when the Audio Plus team began to survey and design the performance space. Research swiftly led to L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound, which generates 360° surround sound using object-based mixing to manage the placement of signals around the hall, creating true immersion for the audience.
“The City of Warsaw and the Ursynów District Office wanted to create a unique facility with a perfectly equipped auditorium as its central and pivotal element,” explains Patryk Kuryło, sound manager at Ursynów Cultural Centre Alternatywy. “It would be the stage technology that would distinguish this facility from other auditoriums in the city, and this gave rise to the ambitious goal of creating a unique sound space that will be hard to equal with other halls, not only in Poland but around the world.”
The main system comprises five hangs of one A10 Focus topped with two A10 Wide, with two hangs of two SB18msubs in a cardioid configuration on either side of the central A10 hang. Five 5XT are evenly spaced across the stage lip for front-fill. A total of 12 wall-mounted X8, four along each side wall and four across the rear wall, are used for surround, with a further two X8 ceiling-mounted for in-fill. Two X8, six X12, and three X15HiQ provide stage monitoring. System control is via an L-ISA Controller and L-ISA Processor, and a total of 13 LA4X amplified controllers powering the system.
The loudspeaker cabinets are all connected to the 96 x 64 multichannel L-ISA processor and controlled by L-ISA Controller, a simple and intuitive integrated software suite that serves as the hub for all L‑ISA functionality. The software enables object-based mixing along with comprehensive control and programming capabilities via a touchscreen or laptop.
“The big difference with immersive mixing is that we don’t just mix in stereo to two clusters,” continues Juzala. “The speakers are all hooked up to the L-ISA Processor, and during the mixing process, each sound source is managed individually rather than blended. Using the L-ISA Controller, the system adjusts the parameters that orient an object in space, and we create the concert spatially. The heart of the system is not the FOH console, as is normally the case, but the L-ISA Processor, which contains the algorithms responsible for signal distribution.”
“The entire Audio Plus team was impressive in educating the management team at Ursynow on the benefits of an immersive sound system for their venue," concludes Florian Kunz, regional sales manager at L-Acoustics. "Audio Plus ensured a perfect design and installation for the venue and took the time to train the team on the new technology, and the benefit of their expertise will be enjoyed by the Warsaw community for years to come."
