Established in 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) addresses poverty and inequality in Latin America and Caribbean countries by providing loans, grants, technical assistance and research. It was headquartered at the IDB Conference Center in Washington, DC, where the 500-seat Enrique V Iglesias Auditorium was built to host films, seminars, lectures and town hall meetings – with a PA system designed to accommodate spoken word and cinema playback.

In 2012 the facility took on concerts and other cultural events featuring live entertainment staged by Central and South American artists, musicians and dancers. Baltimore-based audiovisual consulting and engineering firm Pershing Technologies stepped in to provide consulting support and design services.

‘The IDB wanted a system that would provide a cohesive and engaging sound, especially for musical events,’ Pershing Senior Systems Engineer Eric Echols explains. ‘Line arrays seemed like the ideal choice as they allowed us to reach the vast majority of the audience listening area without having to use fills.’

Inevitably, the project brought challenges: ‘We were constrained by the space as it was originally designed, which always presents challenges,’ Echols says. ‘With simultaneous interpretation booths located on either side of the audience area, there are large areas of glass parallel to each other, which created some interesting acoustical issues. Pershing Technologies has worked with other organisations that have similar interpretation booths in their conference facilities, like the IMF and World Bank, so this type of challenge was not entirely new.’

For the main arrays, Pershing specified six L-Acoustics Kiva plus two Kilo LF extension loudspeakers for each side. In order to address the floor and balcony levels with the same arrays, as well as working within the architectural and structural constraints of the venue, the Kilo arrays were flown side-by-side with the Kiva hangs rather than above. Diversified Systems was tasked with the installation.

The next challenge was to provide performers and speakers with a monitoring solution that wouldn’t significantly compromise the room aesthetics or stage space. ‘We used the tiny coaxial 5XT systems for under-balcony fills, as well as stage confidence monitors flown behind the main arrays,’ Echols  says. ‘These fire back at the stage so the performers and presenters know they’re being heard, and so they can hear program material from other sources.’

To drive the Kiva/Kilo and 5XT loudspeaker systems, L-Acoustics LA4 amplified controllers were chosen to power the system and provide loudspeaker processing.

‘The space is highly finished and detailed and demanded a solution that was visually appealing and unobtrusive,’ Echols adds. ‘While we did not have prior direct experience with Kiva/Kilo, we have heard many other L-Acoustics systems and were very impressed. We had great confidence that the small, visually appealing Kiva/Kilo products would fit well within the architectural constraints and sonically perform very well. We also appreciated the great support from the manufacturer throughout the entire design process.’