A stone quarry Hungarian town of Tokaj provided its 1,300ft-high mountain as a backdrop for an amphitheatre hosting a wide variety of events by Istvàn Dévald. To equip the venue, Dévald called in ZAJ Show Lighting, whose CEO and founder Tamas Fazekas designed audio and lighting set-ups worthy of the location.
Fazekas’s brief for the audio system was to ensure it reached the 2,500 capacity audience comfortably, designing an audio system able to ensure optimum sound reinforcement, covering the entire audience area for a wide variety of events – spoken word, music and concerts. Apart from the sonic challenge, the rig had to be easily moved for use at events staged in the nearby town and withstand local weather conditions, particularly the frequent strong winds.
To ensure even coverage across the whole auditorium, the main PA chosen comprises 16 Outline Butterfly CDH 483 high-pack line arrays, which can be used along with four Outline Mantas line arrays, which can either be flown from the stage roof or on separate towers. The front fills can be placed under the arrays or along the stagefront. Bottom-end power is ensured thanks to 12 Outline DBS 18-2 subwoofers, which can be installed on either side of the stage, under the arrays (in cardioid configuration if necessary), or along the front of the stage.
The main system’s all-Outline amplification comprises eight T7, six T11 and two T5 DSP amplifiers. These can be fed digitally with AES signals, but Fazekas has also configured the analogue inputs for backup purposes, and to enable them to be used with smaller mixing consoles.
The side fill set-up, which features eight more Outline Mantas line arrays plus four Outline DBS 18-2s and is powered by four T5 DPS and two T11 amplifiers, can be used with the main PA for even more precise coverage or, alternatively, as a separate system.
‘We achieved our goal,’ Fazekas reports. ‘Spectators in the front rows share the same sound experience those furthest from the stage, whether they’re listening to opera, a philharmonic orchestra, a rock band or even techno sounds.’
More: www.outline.it
