To modernise and maximise its acoustic potential Atlantis host Jürg Wartmann and resident DJ Cedric Eichenberger recently replaced a ten-year-old audio system, improving the venue’s sound and also feeding music to the upstairs gallery and other key zones. Beyond club nights, concerts, carnival and business events needed to be accommodated. In addition the system in the restaurant area needed to be as unobtrusive as possible.
‘To properly address a multiplicity of issues, we initiated an early planning round table with Jürg Arpagaus from Audio Partner, a specialist in noise limiting and recording and Alain Müller and Christoph Ritter from system installer M&R Multimedia Productions,’ says Dirk Noy, General Manager of WSDG Europe. Requirements were defined, and a comprehensive sound system design was developed by WSDG engineers Gabriel Hauser and Carlo Fickler.
The main components of the new system are the loudspeakers. The front system is comprised of two JBL AM6212 – and a 12-inch/3-inch Application Engineered Series two-way speaker, which won through a comparative hearing and measurement test. The gallery – critical for ceiling height – and the auxiliary zones are covered by 12 JBL AC 28/26 systems – very compact, horizontally installable dual 8-inch/1-inch two-way systems. Kling & Freitag 15-inch subwoofer systems were installed under the stage. Electronic signal processing and distribution is handled by a BSS Soundweb London processor with a Blu-160 and Blu-Bob Break Out Box. Various distributed zone volume controls and a selector switch for operating mode are provided for simple system control. The amplifier rack is stacked with eight Crown I-Tech HD devices.
Itself housed in an historical building, the club’s surroundings also had to be taken into account. ‘The beautiful old buildings in the immediate neighborhood are residential,’ Noy says. ‘And, while no one can expect total silence in the midst of a city centre at night, Jürg Wartmann was concerned about maintaining a neighborly peace and quiet.’
To accomplish this, WSDG recommended the Martin Audio Engineer – an innovative audio processor, which employs Residual Pitch, a proprietary psychoacoustic effect that permits the audience to ‘discern’ low-frequency energy not actually produced by the system. The overtones of this missing, suppressed or ‘phantom’ fundamental frequency lack a specific sound component but the brain perceives the pitch of a tone by the ratio of its higher harmonics. While clubbers experience the Residual Pitch effect, neighbours benefit from a subtle adjustment in volume. The installation is a first for the processor in Switzerland.
As a failsafe loudness emergency brake, the install includes a Cesva LRF-05 processor and limiter which receives its sense input from a black box that provides isolation from audience noise and simultaneously records noise levels for logging purposes, a legal requirement in Switzerland.
The installation
Because ‘tis is open six nights a week, the install by M&R Multimedia Productions had to be meticulously planned and implemented. M&R project manager Christoph Ritter reports the primary challenge was the time constraint – the entire installation had to be accomplished within 48 hours. ‘At 5am when the Saturday Club Night ended we started rocking. 7am Sunday morning we began dismantling the old equipment. By mid-afternoon, all the loudspeakers and old amplifier racks were dismantled. Then we immediately started the installation of 18 new loudspeaker systems. By early Monday morning, despite a sleepless night, we had set up and rewired all the new amplifiers and system racks. That afternoon we began running tests and fine tuning,’ Ritter says.
WSDG, M&R and Audio Partner collaborated fully on the system calibration and measurement. ‘Despite the extremely tight schedule we managed to play background music as early as noon on Tuesday and launch Friday Club Night with full power.’ comments Alain Müller of M&R. The following weekend ‘tis reopened with a celebration. The occasion was marked by the ring of striking ‘Golden’ champagne glasses provided by the event sponsor – inviting Atlantis Basel’s next generation of Golden Years.
More: www.wsdg.com
