The Royal Theatre of Namur in Belgium has installed a 34-speaker Amadeus system with Holophonix spatial control to bring the best possible listening to every seat in the hall without disturbing its architectural theme.
‘The venue is a magnificent listed Italian-style theatre, restored at great expense during a project that lasted from 1994 to 1998 – gilt in every corner, coquettish velvet curtains, intricate mouldings, bourgeois armchairs, frescoes under the dome, and all the decorum you can imagine,’ says, Sound Department Manager, Patrice Dhautcourt. ‘Our previous system was nothing less than a punch in the face for this architectural masterpiece’
The previous system consisted of two pairs of L-Acoustics Arcs DV-Sub loudspeakers mounted on the stage frame, plus delays to open up the less well-served balcony areas. After visiting the Paris-based National Theater of Chaillot, and a few months after hearing an concert at the Courtyard of Honor during the Avignon Festival – both using Amadeus speakers and Holophonix spatial processing – Dhautcourt was convinced this was the right type of system for the Namur Royal Theater.
‘When the musician played the first notes – even though I was sitting halfway downstage left – I was absolutely certain that what I was hearing was the unplugged instrument, so impeccably natural was its timbre and location,’ Dhautcourt recalls. ‘At the same time, I was equally sure that this was not possible, as I know the sound level of a harpsichord, which is far too light to be heard by all listeners in these conditions. As an atheist, I was witnessing a miracle of technology. Off to the left, 30m from the source, my brain swore it was an acoustic concert, but I was wrong.’
The sound system for the Royal Theatre of Namur had to be as versatile as possible and capable of handling a wide variety of programmes including theatre, dance, readings, one-man shows and concerts.
‘Built in 1863, the theatre has a horseshoe-shaped audience area,’ says Holophonix Technical Engineer, Francesco Papaleo. ‘Faithful to the principles inherited from the 16th century, its acoustics naturally amplify sources present on the stage and in the orchestra pit using the arch of the proscenium, and in the auditorium, by the resonant warmth of the wood and the reverberance of the stucco. In designing and tuning the sound system we have tried to take advantage of this architecture, playing with the acoustics, rather than against them.’
‘We came up with two systems in one, both very different in their philosophy and very complementary in that they respond to very different demands, uses, and needs,’ says Amadeus/Holophonix CEO, Gaetan Byk. ‘In practice, these “two systems” simply correspond to two presets in Holophonix that the users can easily recall and edit depending on the creative project which is featured at the theatre.
‘The first system is very traditional in its design. It consists of three levels or “floors” of speakers distributed over the height, each point of diffusion being perfectly broadband up to 40Hz. This purely stereophonic system is coupled to a front fill sound ramp, which is controlled according to the laws of Wave Field Synthesis via the Holophonix processor. This system offers lower localization quality, but remarkable spectral precision, pressure level, and coverage. It’s also extremely easy to use, enabling host companies to work in the traditional left/right mode.
‘The second spatial FOH system is much more innovative and offers advanced localisation. It consists of a six-speaker high line with six Amadeus C 12 speakers and a 14-speaker front fill low ramp. Lateral subwoofers and infra-bass reinforcements can be added as required. These two lines are naturally driven by Wave Field Synthesis buses via Holophonix for perfect sound field re-creation. This system is further optimised for object mixing, finely reinforcing acoustic sources while maintaining their localization properties. Perceptively, the diffusion system ‘disappears’ completely, to the benefit of the acoustic sources present on the stage.’
The new Royal Theatre of Namur sound system comprises 14 Amadeus SR 790 NMR sound ramp modules and six Amadeus C12 coaxial loudspeakers. These form an upper ‘line’ or ‘antenna’ flown above the stage. They are driven by the Holophonix processor using a Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) algorithm.
In addition, there are four Amadeus C15 triaxial loudspeakers in a stereophonic configuration on the 1st and 2nd balconies, two Amadeus C12 coaxial loudspeakers in a stereophonic configuration on the third balcony, two Amadeus ABB 18 subwoofers positioned centrally under the stage and are used to complete the low-frequency response of the system below 70Hz, and six Amadeus ABB 12 bass speakers on the first, second and third balconies to complete the stereophonic configuration and make each ‘pair’ of loudspeakers full range.
