L-Acoustics transforms an iconic congress hall in Russia

L-Acoustics transforms an iconic congress hall in Russia

Russia – When it opened in 2007, the newly built Toratau Congress Hall became an instant architectural icon. Comprising 14 multifunctional conference rooms, three VIP meeting rooms, a concert hall, a huge 4,000 square meter exhibition space and three first-class restaurants, each of the facilities matched the innovative design of the building itself. Over time, Toratau Congress Hall attracted an increasingly international roster of events and performers, which in turn presented more demanding technical requirements. Site management realized that the main auditorium would require a new, high-end, multifunctional sound system. A brief easily filled by the K and X series from L-Acoustics.

Located in the city of Ufa, the capital and largest city of Russia’s most populous Republic of Bashkortostan, the Toratau Palace of Congresses was designed to host events ranging from regional civil conferences to artist tours and at international summits: including the BRICS summit, a gathering of five major emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2015 .

The main concert hall’s audio system lacked sound quality, capacity and flexibility, prompting the hall to call in Moscow-based experts, Theater Techniques and Technologies and certified distributor L-Acoustics for Russia. , Sonoruss. The two companies were jointly appointed to manage the installation of a new audio system, from modelling, specification and design through to equipment installation and system tuning.

“Our engineers were tasked with designing an audio system capable of handling a range of events ranging from, for example, a regional senior management meeting or press conference to an international summit or folk concerts, pop and philharmonics. In fact, a specific requirement of the brief was that the new sound system be compliant with the riders of internationally touring artists. The new system would also solve the problems of poor speech intelligibility and uniform room coverage, which the current system struggled to provide,” says Igor Novikov, Technical Director of Sonoruss.

At the heart of the specification, an L-Acoustics Kara IIi loudspeaker system was selected for its professional reputation, exceptional sound quality and flexible configurations. The process began with Sonoruss engineers assessing the room space, performing electro-acoustic measurements and building a 3D model of the project in L-Acoustics Soundvision software, an essential part of any system design workflow. L-Acoustics, to design the right audio system. room solution.

Theater Techniques and Technologies and Sonoruss specified eight compact and lightweight Kara IIi speakers to cover the left and right output channels, in combination with four SB18i subwoofers per side. The SB18i flying subs were installed in a cardioid pattern to avoid excessive low frequency feed to the stage. Four other Kara IIi speakers provide dedicated sound coverage to the few front rows that sit in a listening black spot in the main feed. Four SB28 subwoofers were installed as the center group. The pit and sub-balcony areas are covered by five compact X8 speakers positioned on the edge of the stage. Finally, additional X12 filler arrays are installed below the left and right portals at the performer level on stage to complete the audience sound experience.

“The biggest challenge on this project was the lead time, as the work needed to be completed as quickly as possible to accommodate the busy site schedule. Surprisingly, the supply of the products, the routing of the cables, the installation and the final commissioning of the works were completed in just 20 days”, concludes Novikov. “The end result is exceptional. The L-Acoustics system provided even sound distribution across every seat in the room, with high levels of speech intelligibility and SPL, natural sounding musical instruments, and user-friendly control. The Congress Hall team is thrilled with the result, and the project has delivered exactly what it set out to do. Thanks to L-Acoustics, the Toratau Congress Hall has finally become a modern and multifunctional space that meets the technical requirements of a high-level venue.

February 7, 2022

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