L’Auditori de Barcelona has broadened its horizons from classical exclusivity to embrace other music – even pop. And it’s no casual move for a venue that is home to the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya. L’Auditori was also the first concert venue in Spain to join the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) in 2007, a matter of pride for a venue only open since 1999.
New styles of music exposed shortcomings in the sound system, however: ‘We already had a point source solution, and some delays due to the long size of the auditorium,’ says Head of Sound, Toni Vila. ‘Yet for international artists, this system was far away from actual rider expectations and could not provide the proximity effect audiences expect in such type of shows.’
L’Auditori set aside three days for tests, and invited demonstrations from the three brands that appeared most regularly on audio riders. ‘The tests were exhaustive,’ explains Enric Esteve of d&b local sales partner, Imaginamusica. ‘We were asked to demonstrate a system using sung vocals with handheld and lavalier mics, a woodwind section, and playback material from contemporary artists. The room is long and lively, so as a partner company we consulted with d&b audiotechnik Spain, Juanma de Casas providing his always excellent technical support. Juanma determined a left/right V-Series system with the V-Subs flown being the main V8/V12 arrays and T10s in point source mode for front fills, all configured to provide the most contained directivity control. His priority was keeping energy off the walls, yet with the level of presence, power and musicality demanded of contemporary popular artists.’
Esteve and de Casas also added a discrete pair of out fill V12s rigged upstage behind the Tops and Subs, ‘there are some very lateral balconies relative to the stage, we could never cover these seats before,’ Vila says. ‘That and the well behaved cardioid performance of the flown Subs has transformed the listening experience.’
Following tests in July 2013, a one-off live show was undertaken with David Byrne and his band in September. ‘Both the demo day, and that live show test were very tight schedules,’ said de Casas afterwards, ‘With a mix of line arrays and point source, aligning and correctly EQing such a system can be time consuming, but the simple workflow of using ArrayCalc at the planning stage, and then being able to convert this quickly and easily to a full system set-up in the D80 amplifiers via the d&b R1 Remote control software, meant that we could on both days, have the rig running and tuned almost immediately it was rigged.’
‘Imaginamusica made a permanent installation in July of 2014,’ Vila says. ‘The consistency of voice through to the far-field, and the fact we no-longer need any delays to reach there are a real benefit. They also arranged for myself and my colleague Tole to attend a line array workshop at d&b in Backnang, Germany before commissioning. As such we were able to manage our first concert ‘flying solo’, with US legends Chicago who played shortly thereafter. We now present a new, exciting and unexpected program content, yet the traditions and virtues of L’Auditori remain absolute.’
