Pursuing its motto ‘be the finest’, Bangkok’s Thammasat University is among Thailand’s oldest institutions of higher learning. Until its recent replacement, a six-year-old line array frustrated this mission however.
Lecturers using the university’s multipurpose lecture theatre had struggled to make themselves heard clearly until the installation of Renkus-Heinz system.
The 6,000-sq-ft venue is located within the university’s largest campus, Rangsit, and has a sloped seating configuration that rises from the stage to the rear of the auditorium. A loudspeaker system installed in 2010 failed to adequately serve the space: ‘The existing system had problems with speech clarity,’ says Patiyuth Gludnim of Thai distributor and systems integrator Vichai Trading. ‘There were uneven sound pressure levels and coverage problems.’
Called upon to propose a solution, Vichai turned to Renkus-Heinz Iconyx, with two IC16-RN columns mounted at either side of the lecture theater’s stage – not replacing the existing line array, but augmenting it. ‘The primary purpose of the IC16-RN columns was for the all-important speech intelligibility during lectures, while the existing line array would be used for music playback,’ adds Renkus-Heinz Application Engineer, KK Tan. But even with the additional loudspeakers, the venue was hard to tame, particularly when it came to the rear seating.
‘There simply wasn’t enough SPL in the room for a hall of this size when we used traditional multi-beam coverage, so instead we decided to try our new UniBeam format,’ Tan explains.
Drawing on Renkus-Heinz’s beam-steering expertise, Rhaon software was used to set the IC16-RN to UniBeam (Universal Beam) mode – a feature of Iconyx Gen5. Unibeam counters the limitations of traditional point source enclosures, in which optimal coverage is achieved with a trade-off between distance and accuracy. In contrast, UniBeam makes it possible to deliver ‘Half Horn’ coverage, with digital beam steering allowing the user to shape their ideal coverage pattern.
Within the Thammasat lecture theatre, the results were dramatic: ‘We e achieved an additional 6dB,’ Tan reports.
The UniBeam gives coverage across the entire area for the first time. Equally importantly, it promises to last: ‘Using UniBeam means that there’s no undue stress on the system,’ concludes Gludnim, ‘while the lecture theatre now benefits from consistent and clear speech, right to the back of the hall.’
More: www.renkus-heinz.com
