Cologne, April 11 -
Wilhelmshaven, a city in northern Germany, runs its civic hall “
Stadthalle Wilhelmshaven” with around
3000 sqm spread over several rooms to accommodate the largest events. Recently the technical team, helmed by
Armin Suhr, updated the audio components with purchasing new audio gear from
dBTechnologies.
Cooperating with German pro audio service provider HotSound-Store, also responsible for commissioning, Stadthalle Wilhelmshaven purchased the VIO L210, an active 2-way line array system with matching subwoofers and near- and out fill-cabinets. Altogether 16x VIO 210L modules, 6x VIO S318 subs, 4x VIO X10 and 2x VIO X12 modules are in use. In daily operation, the audio team uses dBTechnologies' Aurora Net control software to set up and control the systems.
In its largest configuration planned for the Stadthalle, the system is used with 2x 8 VIO L210 line array modules. The 6x VIO S318 subwoofers are deployed in a cardioid configuration in stacks of three. The 4x VIO X10 are used as near fill or monitor speakers, the 2x VIO X12 as outfill or monitor speakers.
Thinking about a new system the new PA-tools had to be as flexible as the room concepts and events happening in the Stadthalle. The venue comprises several halls, the largest with 1400 sqm can accommodate up to 3,000 visitors. The various events taking place reflect Stadthalle Wilhelmshaven’s use as a flexible location: seminars, conferences, concerts, comedy and musical productions and more. Therefore the VIO-system is not used as a fixed install, but as a mobile PA-system that is being installed and dismantled depending on the event.
"It was important to us that the new system was easily scalable and quick to set up and dismantle," says Armin Suhr, Technical Director at Stadthalle Wilhelmshaven, about the system requirements. "During changes the line array modules can remain on the dollies grouped into four and permanently wired, making the installation simple and quick during recurring installations," Suhr continues.
The venue’s biggest hall comes up with several special structural features the PA-system has to take into account. For example, the stage is mobile and is positioned at different locations in the room depending on the event. The floor and the balcony are ascending. Using the dBTechnologies system composer, the audio staff designed proper settings for rigging and radiation angles easily loaded into the system via the RDNet protocol. As a result, the engineers achieved a balanced sound coverage both for the balcony and for the audience floor which ascents up to one metre.
The venue’s productions and requirements are constantly changing. This is where the modern and simple 3-point rigging and dBTechnologies VIO L210 dollies excel. For transport and storage during production changes the VIO L210 modules can permanently remain on the dollies, in packages of four and fully wired. Thus it is possible to label the dollies for recurring positions and to achieve the same sound results again and again without repeated calculations. Therefore the whole rigging and setup take only a few minutes. The modules can be installed with the corresponding presets stored in the software.
For Christian Liedmann, Managing Director of HotSound GmbH, the VIO-system already proved its flexibility during commissioning, because of the dBTechnologies Composer, which was used for system calculation, alignment and angulation. "The usage of the Composer is child's play. The user just enters the key data of the venue, stage data, flight altitude (anchor point), start and stop of the planned coverage and up to three balconies - and you are ready to go. You can create the radiation angles, presets of the individual loudspeakers and running times as well as the delay times of the subwoofers in the shortest time," says Liedmann.
Using the Composer, audio engineers can visually display the acoustic behaviour over different frequencies and the SPL-drop at the click of a mouse. The Composer also simplifies the arrangement of the low frequencies, always an important topic. With bass lines or cardioid applications often only a few centimetres or milliseconds make a difference, that leads to the best result.