024 REPORT
HELSINKI MUSIC CENTRE
Company: Yamaha Location: Helsinki, Finland
Satisfying continually rising public expectations is a key reason for the technical specifications of new and refurbished public buildings becoming ever more com- plex. The ongoing development of technology leads to higher customer expecta- tions, creating the demand for even better technology. In many ways sound is a unique sense, because much of it is received and inter- preted on an almost subconscious level. People become used to high quality audio at home, in the car or in the cinema without really realising it. They then expect to enjoy the same quality in a wide variety of situations, not realising the technical and acoustic challenges that it presents. The challenges of providing high quality, versatile audio throughout multi-room public venues are considerable. Nowadays the requirement to feed audio from any- where to anywhere is the norm, with multi-purpose spaces of different sizes and acoustic qualities that can frequently be divided and combined. Another challenge is ensuring that all kinds of audio - from classical to rock music, voice announce- ments to presentations - are delivered with equally high quality. Loudspeakers and mixing consoles are very much the ‘public face’ of audio installations. However, much essential equipment is required ‘behind the scenes’ to satisfy the technical demands of architectural audio. Yamaha’s DME Series of digital mixing engines is at the forefront of the technology and one of the latest projects to feature a comprehensive DME installation is the one of Europe’s most technically advanced public buildings, the Helsinki Music Centre. Home to the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Or- chestra and the Sibelius Academy, a Dante audio network is installed throughout the building, which includes a 1,700-capacity main concert hall, five further per- formance halls, rehearsal spaces, dedicated recording studios, broadcast facilities, a backstage areas and the usual range of public services and circulation areas. No less than seven Yamaha DME64N and three DME24N were specified to take care of the building’s complicated audio routing needs. “Helsinki Music Centre is a very complex building and it needs a large quantity of different routings and audio submixes,” said Ari Lepoluoto, Head of the AV Depart-
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ment at Akukon Ltd, the company that oversaw the technical side of the project. “The DMEs are used as a decentralised audio routing and combining matrix with audio processing functions. They feed the sound reinforcement systems, induction loops and foyer loudspeaker systems, they control audio crossfeed between dif- ferent rooms, feed audio from the music halls to artist’s dressing rooms and so on. They also send audio from the concert halls to the venue’s recording studios and provide feeds for broadcast.” He continued: “Every performance hall can also be used as an auditorium for smaller presentations, teaching, etc. In this case there are usually no sound or lighting technicians present, so all the audio visual functions - sound, lighting, screens, projectors - are controlled by the touch screens of centralised device control systems. In this case the DMEs are also controlled by touch screens.” Yamaha ICP1 intelligent control panels are installed permanently in the equipment racks, used to select pre-configured operating modes in situations when touch screens are not used to control all the audiovisual functions. “In recording sessions it may also be necessary to mute some areas of the induc- tion loops, because of possible interference between electric instruments and the loops. The ICP1 panels allow this to be done very quickly and easily,” said Ari. The DME units were supplied by Yamaha’s Finnish distributor F-Musikki to the project’s three audio systems integrators, Starlike, Hedcom and Audico, after a competitive bidding process, nowadays an obligatory method for public procure- ment in the EU. “We looked at all the options and the DME units fulfilled everything we needed,” said Ari. “The most important requirements for the DSP / matrix system were flexibility and compatibility with various audio network protocols. High analogue I/O sound quality was also essential, plus the ability to handle many inputs and outputs. The DME system fulfilled these requirements very well. Helsinki Music Centre staff are really pleased with how the system is performing.”
www.yamahaproaudio.com
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