latest news headlines
QSC ILA Covers the Spectrum
Belfast's Shankilll Road is embedded in the City's ethno-political history, but in the era after what was known as ‘The Troubles' a number of cross-community projects have been floated, as this working class Protestant district of the city begins its slow regeneration.
Nothing embodies the community spirit better than the Spectrum Centre - an initiative that began on the site of the former Stadium Cinema as a Belfast Millennium project back in 2001.
Run by an organisation known as The Spectrum Centre - and allied to the Greater Shankill Partnership - it operates independent of local government support, as a private commercial enterprise.
Today, following a £250,000 upgrade, the 3,700 sq. metre venue is a major cultural and conference venue, that hosts many community activities ranging from dance studio, youth lounge, various meeting rooms - and both a major and minor concert hall. Within this, it promotes arts festivals and has set out to connect with its cultural past via historic movies and exhibitions.
It is the larger of these halls, with retractable seating for 340 (850 standing), that has now been equipped with a QSC ILA line array system - meeting the venue's requirement not only for a venue that can host everything from comedy to cabaret, dramatic arts and regimental bands - but also offer a digital infrastructure for incoming productions that will future proof it for many years to come.
The entire audio visual package was supplied by local dealers, DJ Kilpatrick and installed by Darren Gardiner of Light & Sound FX (LSFX).
Jim Hooks, who runs DJ Kilpatrick, remembers that several quotes had already been presented to the clients by the time he became involved. "But they seemed totally inadequate for what the Spectrum was looking to achieve," he says. And so he contacted Gardiner and between them the two men redesigned the system.
Central to their thinking was a matched QSC signal path, with a triamped system assigned to three QSC RMX-5050's (driving the five-hangs-per-side WL2082-i mid-highs) and an RMX-2450 powering the single WL118-sw subs. All the presets would be stored in a dedicated SC28 system controller, designed to manage and optimise the system.
The product selection had been determined by Jim Hooks after hearing a system demo at Shure Distribution UK (QSC's UK distributors). "They put a live rapper through it - and the sound was perfect," he said. For his part, Darren Gardiner admits, "This is my first experience with QSC and I had no idea it would sound as well as it does. In terms of size and performance it is ideal for this venue and for the price point it is also perfect."
For the speaker hangs, LSFX fabricated special steelwork with mounting poles, custom built to take the array frame, and welded to the cast steel ceiling plate. The poles are covered with box trunking to conceal the cabling.
"It was really easy to rig - once the frame was in, it was fitted and tuned within two hours, which was remarkable," says Darren.
The installers were assisted by EASE modelling, masterminded by Peter James at Shure Distribution (UK), while SMAART was used to EQ the room.
"SMAART delivers a very accurate room reading but Shure Distribution also supplied the processor settings and cue points which were spot on," adds Darren. "So we had to do very little except switch on to a great sound, evenly dispersed, with no hotspots." The presets are stored as layers on the digital desk.
The remainder of the technology includes Sanyo LCD projector, 20ft drop-down projection screen, Litec truss, generic Silicon fresnels (on six lighting bars, including two at the rear), six-way Zero 88 dimming and lighting desk, while the fit-out also includes stage drapes, staging and seating.
The venue's general manager, Julie Andrews, says she is delighted with the quality of the technical infrastructure which will open up the potential of this reconfigurable black box. "Although we received financial support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Dept of Social Development Capital Modernisation Fund, this enterprise has to stand on its own two feet. Having a system of this quality will be a big boost."
30th September 2009
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
