Switzerland - For 22 years from 1994 to 2016 the Kuppel (Dome) in Basel was a legendary concert venue and club which successfully hosted national and international acts. It was a wooden structure that had originally been built for a gardening show and was temporarily relocated onto public land in the city. Never intended as a permanent fixture, the city’s government eventually had the Kuppel demolished, but so popular was the venue that a trust committee had been established, and eight years after its removal, the new Kuppel was inaugurated.
Architects Vécsey*Schmidt designed the new venue and worked closely with the Basel office of global AV consultant, Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG), who was appointed as the project’s acoustic engineering specialist. A high priority was placed on the total acoustic insulation of the venue owing to its location in a residential area. The collaboration between architect and acoustic specialist was a great success.
WSDG specified a Coda Audio system for the venue’s concert stage, which is located on the first floor beneath the dome after which the venue is named. Matthias Dietrich from Coda Audio’s Swiss distributor Schallwerk explains the choice:
“The process began back in the winter of 20/21 when the COVID pandemic had severely impacted the industry, and trade shows were simply not viable. We reconfigured our warehouse as a showroom and invited clients and potential clients to comprehensive demonstrations of Coda’s systems, allowing them to experience every detail of what was on offer.
“The team from WSDG expressed an interest in Coda Audio and came in for a demo with a view to specifying it for the new Kuppel project. They clearly liked what they heard and saw, and Coda ended up on the tender. The powerful yet lightweight and compact system was perfect for what was quite a challenging space to cover.”
AV consultant and integrator, Auviso of Emmen, was engaged to install the system, which was designed by WSDG around Coda Audio’s APS three-way arrayable point source loudspeakers. The choice of an arrayable point source best suited the compact round shape of the 600-capacity concert room.
The main system at the front of the hall comprised flown clusters of three Coda Audio APS (2 x 10”) and a single APS-SUB (18”) per side, with an additional HOPS 8T (high output point source) flown per side as stage-fills, and five SCN-F (15”) bass extensions on the floor under the stage.
At the rear of the room above the bar, the team installed two N-APS two-way arrayable point source units and a single N-SUB (15”) per side. This supplementary system is primarily used for surround effects in gigs, or as a part of a four-point setup for DJs. A further three N-APS were deployed as balcony delays with six Cue Two triaxial 15” wedges used for stage monitoring. The system is powered by Coda Audio six Linus 12C 4 channel DSP amplifiers.
Matthias Dietrich of Schallwerk tuned the system: “The system design in the concert space is excellent. The flown APS clusters and sub combined with the floor subs give a very nice, even low-end coverage, and the Cue Two wedges are an excellent fit. Coda Audio loudspeakers were also chosen for the ground floor bar, where six D8 two-way 8” coaxial installation loudspeakers are complemented by a pair of ultra-compact U12 12” subwoofers.
“Kuppel’s new incarnation is once again the embodiment of Basel’s vibrant music scene and we are proud to have played a part in bringing it to life with Coda Audio at its heart.”
