Although the Rettorato (Chancellor's Building) at the Palazzo dell'Università - which houses the entire administration - occupies an architecturally-magnificent building with a historic quadrangle that dates back to the mid-1700's, the University was originally founded in 1404 by Pope Benedetto XIII, making it among the few of European Universities to boast a medieval origin.
Recently the Rettorato's aula magna - the great hall, and main assembly room for the University - underwent a complete audio-visual fit-out.
QSC Audio components were chosen for the sound reinforcement and signal transport following a competitive evaluation process.
However working in a protected environment with marble floor proved an exacting task for the contractors, Electronic Engineering.
Fortunately the University had taken the precaution at an earlier stage to create a room on the floor underneath and insert conduits into the cavities to allow the fixings to made easily, and non-invasively up in the aula magna.
Technical manager Antonio Caprioli says the requirement was for a system that could transparently reproduce a wide programme of events, from full orchestral recitals to Honorary Doctorate presentations and conferences, in which delegates would be speaking through eight gooseneck mics to audiences of up to 250. Evenly-dispersed sound needed to be distributed in an uncomplicated manner, across the floor and up to the raked seating area.
The Università degli Studi di Torino enlisted acoustic consultant Emanuele Prochietto.
Since complex cable runs were out of the question, Prochietto wanted to see an easy, bi-directional signal path that would transport multiple audio channels to and from the mixing desk from the top table and lectern mics over a single Cat 5 cable; at the same time it would provide a monitor system and allow streaming of events to the university's website.
QSC RAVE 520uz and 522aa network devices, operating under QSControl.net, were specified for control. This would enable multi-channel audio to be run over CobraNet, with low latency and high sampling rate.
Six QSC ISIS I-282H loudspeakers, with rotatable waveguide, are spaced evenly down either side of the room (with two delay taps set into the system processor). The sound reinforcement system is powered by three QSC Audio RMX 4050HD amplifiers.
Visually, the infrastructure is served by an electric drop-down screen above the main stage and a number of plasma repeater screens. It also incorporates video conferencing and all signal feeds are switched through an Extron device.
Summarising, Antonio Caprioli says, "The sound is a good deal superior to what we had previously with a high degree of intelligibility. The fact that we can have two scene presets gives us further flexibility for changing the desk positions."
(Jim Evans)
