The kING Culture and Congress Hall in Ingelheim, Germany has been kitted out with new Meyer Sound Constellation and complementary direct reinforcement systems.
The systems were designed by the consulting firm Graner + Partner of Bergisch Gladbach with the Frankfurt office of Amptown System Company (ASC) handling commission and installation.
The kING Culture and Congress Hall is a multi-use venue, which offers an array of flexible seating, staging and lighting features for optimising the space to the needs of different conference or artistic performance. To adapt the room acoustic to any requirement, the audio operator simply taps a touchscreen button to activate the appropriate preset on the venue’s Constellation system. Constellation instantly creates the ideal acoustical ambience, whether augmenting speech clarity for presentations and drama or extending a rich, natural reverberation envelope for orchestral and choral concerts.
“We are pleased with the decision to invest in active acoustics,” said Manual Marx, a principal consultant at Graner + Partner. “The first rehearsals and events have shown that the quality level achievable is on the same level as the acoustics of a high quality classical concert hall.”
At kING Constellation adapts to the venue’s various seating and staging configurations, which can be altered with hydraulic platforms and moveable parquet flooring.
Constellation also provides a solution that integrates into the visual aesthetics of the space, as noted by Dominik Schenke of Graner + Partner. “A particular challenge was to integrate the large number of loudspeakers and microphones in an architecturally appealing manner. We found that we could hide loudspeakers in the walls behind, for example, acoustically transparent cloth. For the audience, technology is pushed into the background and only the impression of great sound remains.”
The Constellation system comprises more than 180 total loudspeakers, with five different models represented: Stella-4C, MM-4XP, UPM-1XP and UP-4XP full-range loudspeakers, plus MM-10XP miniature subwoofers for extending the reverberation envelope into bass octaves. At the heart of the system, Meyer Sound’s powerful D-Mitri digital audio platform performs the complex calculations that define acoustic space by applying the patented VRAS acoustical algorithm.
Damian Mucko, project manager for ASC, commented: “ASC has been involved here since the new structure was an empty shell. That enabled us to respond directly to users’ wishes as well as to architectural changes in the construction phase which can impact the acoustics. We provided the complex infrastructure and supported Meyer Sound’s Constellation team in performing the acoustical measurements.”
ASC also installed the direct reinforcement system, anchored by a main L-R system of 18 MINA line array loudspeakers, a centre cluster of two UPQ-2P and one UPA-1P loudspeakers, four 900-LFC low frequency control elements for bass extension, and six UP-4XP as front fill. Balconies are covered by UPJunior loudspeakers, and three Galileo Callisto 616 loudspeaker management systems provide control and optimisation. Four MJF-210 stage monitors are available for artist foldback.
“The Constellation system enables every event here to benefit from outstanding acoustics,” explained Michael Sinn, managing director of IKum (Ingleheimer Kultur und Marketing GmbH). “As hall operators we can map out the full spectrum of events on the highest acoustic level without the need for time-consuming and cost-intensive physical or structural changes. That makes our operations easier and scores points with our customers.”
Picture: Heike Rost
www.amptown-system.com
www.graner-ingenieure.de
www.meyersound.com
