A new Alcons LR7 pro-ribbon line array has been installed at the Altonaer Theater – located in the centre of Altona, Hamburg – as part of a refurbishment of the premises.
The Altonaer Theater speciliases in bringing literature to the stage. Productions such as Mephisto, Schiller’s Complete Works … Slightly Shortened or bestsellers such as Measuring the World and The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared have achieved cult status, and many productions are specifically created for the theatre.
The requirements for the new audio system were – as usual in the theatre – quite complex. First, the entire auditorium should be provided with an even sound coverage, without requiring additional speakers and delay lines. Needless to say, speech, music and effects as part of a play must be transmitted very well. However, because the Altonaer Theater also plays music theatre and musicals, additional emphasis had to be placed on intelligibility.
Two systems were set up and calibrated. Protones, an event technology company from Lüneburg, was responsible for the technical side of the project. Andreas Meyer-Delius, technical director of the Altonaer Theater, explained: “Both systems achieved a uniform sound coverage and met our pricing expectations.”
The theatre decided ultimately for two flown arrays of five Alcons LR7 each. Under the stage, two BF302i were installed as low-frequency support. Alcons ALC2 and ALC4 with DDP (Digital Drive Processor) were used for system drive and amplification.
The Alcons LR7 pro-ribbon line-array has proven itself in many theatres. Despite extremely compact dimensions (14.1in wide and 6.8in high) and light weight (8kg), the system convinced, with uncompressed, high-performance and uncoloured sound, with at the same time high speech intelligibility, precise dispersion control and a high SPL.
“The sound and vocal intelligibility of the LR7 was immaculate and significantly better than that of the comparative system,” said Meyer-Delius. “In addition, the Alcons system has a uniform signal transmission in all frequency ranges, without the so-called ‘beauty dent’ in the 1000Hz range. This gives the engineer greater freedom in the sound scaping.”
Dirk Dechring, project manager of Protones event technology, said of the Alcons LR7: “It is a discreet system that provides a very high speech intelligibility. So the theatre production is in the foreground, not the technology. “
“Overall, all parties stood by their decision, and after one year of operation, our impression remains very positive,” concluded a satisfied Meyer-Delius.
