A new Alcons Audio pro-ribbon sound system has been installed at the new premises of Hamburg’s Ohnsorg Theatre.
The relocation, which took place in July 2011, saw the theatre move into a former office and retail building in the city’s Bieberhaus borough.
To maintain the performance venue’s heritage of combining natural acoustics and neat sound reinforcement, the new sound system needed to meet the acoustical requirements of the 414-capacity venue as well as blend in with the new architecture. What’s more, planned musical productions for the year would require more powerful sound while maintaining high speech intelligibility.
Florian Buhr from the sound crew at Protones Audiotechnik decided that the most suitable solution would comprise invisible LR7 micro line array of Alcons Audio as well as the VR and SR pro-ribbon series from the Dutch manufacturer.
Due to the limited space in the front cross member, a center cluster solution was said to be the only way to largely cover the stalls and balcony. The Stage Systems team from Gelsenkirchen subsequently installed a center cluster of six Alcons LR7 two-way line source loudspeakers.
In the frontal stage area, two VR8 compact monitors (8in LF + 4in pro-ribbon HF) left / right have been installed in combination with two BF302 (2x 15in) bass systems. The VR8 front fills can be also used in stereo to ‘easily and effectively’ achieve the for theater productions important psychoacoustic effects. Furthermore, particular emphasis was placed to the installation of more VR8 monitors as delay speakers for the stalls and the seats under the balcony.
On stage and in the portal, several microphones have been installed, which can be routed to the delay lines. An additional three SR9 (2x 5in LF + 4in pro-ribbon HF) fill-in monitors have also been installed below the balcony, and also on the rearmost seats so that speech intelligibility is guaranteed.
All systems are operated by Alcons ALC amplified loudspeaker controllers with DDP (Digital Drive Processor).
