054 REPORT
GÄDDVIKEN REHEARSAL HALL
Company: Yamaha Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Whether it’s a historic venue which wasn’t designed with the needs of modern productions in mind (or indeed originally as a live performance space at all) or per- haps a rehearsal facility where the acoustics weren’t prioritised in the design and construction, the acoustics of some venues can leave a lot to be desired. As well as making the audience experience more enjoyable, improving the sound of a venue or rehearsal space also helps artists to deliver a better performance. Physical changes - such as diffusers and suspended ceilings - can be detrimental to the character of the sound, which is why electronic solutions like Yamaha’s latest Active Field Control system - AFC3 - are a better solution. AFC3 is an acoustic conditioning system which adjusts and enhances the acoustic characteristics of a space, while preserving its natural features. It achieves this by creating feedback loops using microphones and speakers located in the reverberant field of the room to ‘recycle’ the reverberant energy, thus extending the reverb time. Yamaha has produced acoustic conditioning systems for over 20 years, but earlier systems were high in both cost and technical complexity, as well as only being available for ven- ues in Japan and the USA. Modern DSP processing has allowed the design and implementation process to be much more cost efficient. Together with advanced automated functions - which mean local acousticians can participate in the tuning process - AFC3 is within reach of much smaller concert halls, auditoria, theatres and churches… and available in Europe. Gäddviken Rehearsal Hall is the rehearsal venue for the Stockholm Royal Opera House. Its 625 sq metres floor area and 17-metres ceiling height provide enough space to accommodate an orchestra, choir, soloists and complete opera set. To minimise unwanted reflections, the walls and ceiling had been treated with absor- bent material, but this delivered an unnaturally dry sound for such a large space. “The room is used daily for staging and setting up full sets as required,” said Lars- Göran Ehn, the Royal Swedish Opera’s Senior Sound Engineer. “However, in 2013 it has also been turned into a ‘black box’ style venue to allow opera performances without the restrictions of the auditorium in the Opera House. Changing from musical rehearsal to staging shows needs to be fast, manageable by a small group of people and, in certain circumstances, we need to be able to turn the acoustics off completely.” Designed by Takayuki Watanabe from Yamaha’s Spatial Audio division in Japan, in close collaboration with Lars-Göran and Mikael Collin, owner of Stockholm-based Audile Electroacoustics, Yamaha’s AFC3 system loudspeakers and microphones have been specified at the venue. AFC3 is an acoustic conditioning system which
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adjusts and enhances the acoustic characteristics of a space, while preserving its natural features. It achieves this by creating feedback loops using microphones and speakers located in the reverberant field of the room to ‘recycle’ the reverberant energy, thus extending the reverb time. The AFC3 system loudspeakers and mi- crophones are placed at least 8.5-metres above the floor to allow full opera stage sets to be housed in the multi-purpose space. A total of 16 mobile SMT S-wing diffuser panels are also employed as a com- plementary solution during orchestral rehearsals to support very early reflections although, for most installations with less extraordinary height requirements, early reflections would be handled solely by the AFC3 system. The completed system includes 44 Yamaha IF2205 full range loudspeakers and four IS118 18-inch sub- woofers, all flown from the ceiling or mounted on the balcony. While 12 3-Zigma SD-C cardioid microphones are mounted in three rows of four at 8.5-metres high - eight above the rehearsal area are used for the system’s rehearsal presets, or four above the front of the rehearsal area and four above the audience area for the concert presets. A 19-inch rack houses three AFC3-FIR DSP units, two AD8HR A/D converters with microphone pre-amps, six IPA8200 power amplifiers to drive the full range speakers and two PC6501N power amplifiers for the subwoofers. A CP4SW control panel provides day-to-day control, its four settings allowing the selection of ‘off’, ‘rehearsal short’, ‘rehearsal long’ and ‘concert long’ presets. More com- prehensive control is provided by an ICP1 panel, with access to the independent levels of the diffuse reverberation field and of the early reflections. It is password protected, so that only authorised staff can access those settings. “Having the full orchestra to help us set up the system allowed very detailed tuning to be done. Conductor Laurens Renes was very important at this stage, providing us with feedback to ensure the overall response didn’t deviate too much from the orchestra pit at the Royal Opera House,” said Ron Bakker, Systems Marketing Manager at Yamaha. “The ease of basic tuning and hardware setup allows you to focus on what’s really important - how it sounds. It’s amazing to work with a system that allows you to tune it to such a fine level that even 0.25dB makes a difference. And the system behaved exactly as planned, which is vital when it comes to the predictability of such designs,” added Mikael. Lars-Göran was under considerable pressure to ensure the AFC3 system delivered everything that was required, but he is very happy with the result. “Acoustics are critical when working with musicians and singers at this level and we knew that the demands of its sonic quality would be very high. Moreover, using microphones and loudspeakers for acoustic correction still encounters a lot of scepticism, raising the critical listening levels even higher. The truth is that we turned a room considered pointless for our musicians to rehearse in into a hall where they now enjoy making music.”
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