From memories of playing Pong on a black and white television and Space Invaders in arcades to immersion in the latest online 'shoot 'em up', video gaming has been a pastime for millions for over 40 years and is an ever-expanding, multi-billion dollar business.
Created as a part of CQ Connect, a European Regional Development Fund-funded programme, the NVA is located close to Nottingham city centre and is backed by the Nottingham Trent University, the City Council and Confetti Institute of Creative Technology. It features four floors of playable galleries and a warren of rooms and corridors, as well as a cinema, café and lecture/event space - in all covering over 3,000m2.
"It's a complicated building, basically in two halves with a courtyard in the middle, with each having a variety of different spaces and corridors. We needed a system that would effectively route any audio to any room or combination of rooms, but one of the fundamental remits of the design was that the whole system had to be controllable by non-technical users," says Rob.
"I was familiar with Yamaha's DME series digital mixing engines and, having looked at the CIS series, realised they were the only products capable of delivering what was needed."
The 'heart and mind' of the system is a pair of Dante-networked MTX5-D matrix mixers, two redundant network switches, two XMV4280-D and two XMV 8280-D power amplifiers, which drive over 70 Yamaha speakers including VXC ceiling models, VS4, VS6, VXS5 and VXS8 full range units, plus a selection of VXS10ST subs, all in a mixture of 70v, 100v, 8 ohm and 4 ohm configurations.
Straightforward system control comes from six wall-mounted DCP4V4S wall-mounted units. An additional three PA2030 power amplifiers drive systems in breakout teaching spaces and the system also integrates with some existing A/V technology.
The versatility of the Yamaha equipment meant that Rob could devise and install a highly complex system to satisfy the venue's requirements, but make the whole thing very easy to control.
"The combination of the MTX5-Ds and XMV amplifiers is so much better than anything else available, it's on a different level. Everything is so configurable, which not only delivered the required flexibility, but also meant we could successfully deliver full system control via the rotary and pushbutton controls of the DCP4V4S units," he says.
"The audio system is one of the things we're proudest of about the building," says Iain Simons, NVA co-founder. "Rob and Yamaha Commercial Audio Europe - plus around five miles of cabling - have delivered something remarkable."
"It's a very unusual system and I think it's probably doing more in terms of processing and routing than any installation in any other venue I've been involved with. I'm really happy with how versatile and easy to use it is," adds Rob. "We have teenagers who have never used a sound system before running events from small wall panels. Importantly, it also sounds great, - the speakers are really well voiced. And, despite the complexity, it has worked flawlessly from day one. As you'd expect from Yamaha, it's really reliable."
(Jim Evans)
