Distributor Starlike has supplied an L-Acoustics KUDO sound reinforcement system to the Old Student House, Helsinki. The need to deal with a highly reverberant space and demanding architectural requirements bestowed by the venue’s protected status led Old Student House sound engineer Sami Ahonen to specify the KUDO system.
With no acoustic treatment possible, Ahonen sought a solution that would offer an angle of horizontal coverage of 90º or less to avoid unwanted spillage to the side walls.
“Finally I was introduced to KUDO, which has three different modes of horizontal coverage: 50/110º or 80º,” recalled Ahonen. “It’s one of the few systems in the world that is capable of adjusting the width coverage. Needless to say, with KUDO it was possible to cut down the unwanted reverberation and problems caused by it.”
Ahonen and his team used KUDO’s K-LOUVER Modular Directivity Technology to adjust the horizontal directivity to 80º in the two lowest cabinets in the array, tightening the top three boxes up to 50º. “This has worked really well,” said Ahonen. “The lower cabinets create an even coverage at the front, while the top cabinets throw further away, avoiding excess spill into the walls. KUDO is the only system in the market to offer such flexibility.”
The final installation features five KUDO line source cabinets and an SB28 sub-bass unit per side, with a 12XT coaxial providing centre-fill. The system is driven by LA8 amplified controllers, while an extensive range of presets in the LA Network Manager will enable the venue to cope with a wide variety of performance types and applications.
“This great venue is historic and valuable, and it is so nice we now have a great-sounding PA, too,” summed up Ahonen.
Image Credit: Pauli Molnar, Starlike
