Orbital's head of installation projects, Tom Byrne, collaborated with St David's Hall's technical manager, Simon Denman-Ellis, to create a system that would optimise and refine the auditorium's renowned natural acoustics. Working to a tight four-week timeframe, it was designed by Orbital together with d&b audiotechnik's Application Support Team members John Taylor and Ralf Zuleg.
Due to the venue's diverse programme of scheduled events and performances, it was paramount that the new system be flexible and friendly to visiting engineers. As d&b is commonly used on international riders, it was an obvious choice to secure the venue's position on the 'A' list for International touring artists.
Whilst the original system catered in the main for classical performance, the d&b system has been configured to also cater for amplified rock and reinforced speech. Specifically designed to maximise and direct sound to the audience, it minimises any spill into other areas. With a host of live BBC broadcasts from St David's Hall, this is particularly vital as it reduces the amount of sound colouration.
The PA is based around a central hang of d&b Q1 line array cabinets that cover most of the far field, augmented by a pair of Q7 cabinets flown per side and other Q7s hidden in the lighting grid covering the choir stalls. d&b E3s provide the front fill and stage monitoring is covered by ten MAX 12 wedges. Q1s were specified as they boast exceptional pattern control in the both the horizontal and vertical planes plus the Q1 central cluster has been arranged in sections so that the upper tiers can be muted in the event of part occupancy.
The system is powered throughout by d&b D12 amplifiers featuring delay and parametric EQ within the amplifiers DSP so no external processing is required and all the parameters can be recalled to preset values. Using d&b's proprietory Rope C control software running from a dedicated laptop Orbital supplied two presets that the visiting engineers or house manager can recall to tailor the system. In 'House Mode' any visiting engineer can plug the left / right outputs of their console directly into a pre-configured system. In 'Engineering Mode' up to eight speaker zones can be individually accessed.
Orbital's Tom Byrne explains: "Rope C enables functions of the d&b amps to be controlled and monitored using the CAN-Bus (controller Area Network). Specific operating elements of the software include Gain controls, level displays indicators of ISP, OVL/GR and switch functions such as CIT/HFA/HFC/CPL. Group functions such as on/off, master level and mute can also be added to the control surface. An age old problem has just gone away because now we can offer a "fixed" system that cannot be tinkered with one day and a more "open" system that a skilled visiting engineer can access the next."
Simon Denman-Ellis concludes: "We are over the moon with the new system and indeed with Orbital as a contractor. The company handled a very tight deadline professionally and unlike so many other suppliers maintained a flow of communication. This not only gave us added confidence, but ensured that the project ran smoothly from start to finish. We're looking forward to building on the systems' initial successes through 2006 and beyond.
(Lee Baldock)
