Tehran’s premier concert venue, Milad Hall has the distinction of being the only site in the city that is permitted to hold pop concerts. With demands on the venue to update its outdated sound system and a challenging room shape making it difficult to cover the audience are evenly, an L-Acoustics Kara and ARCS WiFo system proved to be the solution.

The system was designed and installed by L-Acoustics Iranian distributor, Farasout Negar, which was founded more than a decade ago by brothers Hossein and Hassan Ardestani – MD and Technical Manager, respectively – along with Project Designer Mohammad Javad Hedyelou. The company has both distribution and rental arms, the latter handling Milad Hall’s audio requirements on a day-to-day basis.

Although 2,000-seat Milad Hall has a traditional raked seating layout, the auditorium has a central elevation that obscures the audio from the main hangs of the PA for members of the audience seated at its rear. The L-Acoustics system addresses these issues by using a combination Kara and ARCS WiFo for both the main and delay system, with the main system covering the area before the central elevation and the delays the seating to the rear.

‘We have worked with Milad Hall for many years and we have a very good understanding of its layout and the technical issues this causes,’ explains Farasout Negar Sales Manager, Mehdi Ariyaeinezhad. ‘Because of this, when the owners decided they wanted a new sound system, they asked us to put a proposal together for a competitive tender. Our design was up against three other systems, all of which are very good, but it was the great speech intelligibility, warmth and natural sound of the L-Acoustics system, along with our technical capabilities, that were the deciding factor in the venue’s final choice.’

Working with L-Acoustics application engineer Nicolas Bertin and using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision 3D acoustic simulation program, Farasout Negar designed a system comprising main hangs of six Kara left and right of the stage, plus two SB18i subwoofers per side flanking a central cluster of two ARCS Focus and one ARCS Wide, which deliver even coverage for the front of the auditorium, with four 12XT providing out fill. 

To address the seating area behind the central elevation, the delay system comprises central and side clusters of two ARCS Wide and two ARCS Focus, flanked by SB18m subs. This combination ensures even coverage is delivered to the entire audience. Stage fills are also ARCS Focus with SB18m subs and stage monitoring is provided by 115XT HiQ.

‘Working with Soundvision not only means that we can precisely predict parameters such as SPL, it’s also a great help when it comes to calibrating the system,’ Ariyaeinezhad says. ‘This saves us a lot of time during the design process and means that we can be certain that we will achieve the right results when the system is installed.

‘We know that we have done this with Milad Hall and the owners are completely satisfied with the system. This was recently endorsed by Mohammad Alizadeh, one of the biggest pop stars in Iran, who said that he feels a great change in the Hall and that the sound is now perfect.’