Built as a hospital, De Bijloke in Gent, Belgium, was transformed into a music venue in the 1980s, making it the oldest building in the world to permanently operate as a concert hall. Recently the venue called in integrator Amptec to install a new d&b audiotechnik sound system as part of major refurbishment project.
De Bijloke hosts performances ranging from classical to jazz music to musical theatre. Together with the age of the building, the combined demands of these contrasting genres called for an expert audio solution to guarantee exceptional listening experiences.
The brief presented to Amptec was for a state-of-the-art concert hall with a versatile sound system that would provide even coverage at every seat. Acoustic treatment was a priority, as the wooden roof structure naturally absorb sound and the ancient walls had warped, reflecting most sounds away from the audience.
World-renowned acoustical engineering company Arup – known for their work on Sydney Opera House and parts of the set for Björk’s recent tour among other ventures – managed to create a space that is now ‘tuned’ for use as a concert hall.
Despite the extensive work on the room acoustics installing a sound system into this redesigned space came with challenges – the hall is very long and the wooden roof structure offers limited rigging options for delay speakers.
As part of a tender process, Amptec demonstrated the d&b Y-Series at the hall, generating positive feedback from the Bijloke team and expert guests. ‘We asked Amptec to bring the full system for a demo and invited a select group of sound engineers,’ says Natan Rosseel, Technical and Production Coordination at De Bijloke. ‘We were all overwhelmed by the results.’
Amptec installed the system in combination with an R90 control panel. ‘Our goal was to make daily operation as simple as possible,’ explains, Amptec Project Manager, Brecht Ieven. ‘With the R90, all system parameters can be set at the push of a button.’
‘The main system consists of two eight deep Yi8 line arrays,’ he continues. ‘We used the ArrayProcessing function to optimise both frequency and level distribution for the entire audience area. This use of ArrayProcessing meant we did not need delay speakers, which solved the problem of not being able to fix anything to the walls.
‘Since our official opening in September, we’ve held a lot of socially distanced concerts where visiting sound engineers, artists and the audience have complimented us on the astonishing sound quality. Thanks to the renovation and a perfectly integrated sound system, the city of Ghent now has a concert hall to be proud of.’
