An urban oasis in the heart of Los Angeles, The Art of Living Center serves as a hub for personal growth and community connection as part of a non-profit venture dedicated to reducing stress and fostering wellbeing through meditation, breathwork, and community service. The vast volume, reflective surfaces and character of the building’s central sanctuary make it an inspiring place to gather but difficult to deliver clear, intelligible sound.
As one of the world’s most prominent Art of Living centres, this Los Angeles haven hosts wellbeing programmes, volunteering and community events. The building itself is an early 20th century architectural gem, featuring what was once the world’s largest concrete poured dome, extensive glasswork and a pipe organ.
To address the acoutics of the space, The Art of Living partnered with Menlo Scientific Acoustic’s principal consultant, Neil Shaw and Electronic Technology integrator Russ DuBrow to design and install an audio system capable of delivering speech intelligibility and musical clarity while respecting its historic architecture. The solution was found in Renkus-Heinz’s IC Live Gen5 ICL-F-Dual digitally steerable arrays and SA112 subwoofers.
As well as speech and meditative programming, the sanctuary hosts occasional musical performances that demand higher sound pressure levels. This diverse programme was a key reason for selecting IC Live – the system’s ability to deliver both high output and precision makes it uniquely suited to support everything from spoken word and chanting to louder musical elements, including a full band with keyboards, guitars and bongo drums, without sacrificing any clarity.
‘Most seasoned A/V gurus would walk away from a space like this, but with today’s digitally steerable arrays, we finally have the tools to take on large, reverberant rooms with confidence’ DuBrow remarks
A pair of custom-painted Renkus-Heinz ICL-F-Duals were installed on either side of the room’s projection screen. Their slim enclosures provide a discreet, elegant solution alongside vertical pattern control. ‘Digital technology provides a major advantage in such a large space where you usually can’t control anything,’ DuBrow says. ‘It allowed us to manage unwanted frequencies and complex reflections from the dome far more precisely, while the line-array capabilities enabled us to steer sounds away from reflective surfaces.’
During installation, a previously unaccounted for wall-mounted projection screen was found to obstruct the loudspeakers’ designated locations. To avoid interference, the arrays were moved about nine feet farther apart. ‘It actually improved the design,’ Shaw notes. ‘The coverage was good before tuning, but after beam steering and optimisation, the improvement was dramatic.’
With limited acoustic treatment in the room and no ability to add more without compromising the architecture, the two ICL-F-Duals discreetly mounted on the front columns focused coverage on the seating areas. ‘The steerable beam allowed us to direct sound to the seating areas while avoiding the parts of the room where it wasn’t needed,’ Shaw says.
To complete the system, two SA112 subwoofers were installed in the front of the stage, placed directly on the floor to prevent resonance and low-frequency absorption. A niche was constructed for the sub-woofer enclosures to mitigate the energy from the enclosures leaking underneath the platform. Complete the installation, a custom metal grille and frame were shaped to match the curve of the stage. A new Allen & Heath GX4816 digital mixer and Cat5/6 extender with D-snake DT168 Stage Box were added later, providing a significant upgrade to signal routing and overall system control.
The new system has significantly enhanced speech intelligibility and uniformity throughout the sanctuary, allowing lecturers, presenters and spiritual leaders to be heard clearly across the space and fully supporting the centre’s wide range of programming. The system now achieves greater gain before feedback, providing reliable performance across varied microphones and speaking styles, as well as during energetic music productions. Its improved clarity has also made communication noticeably easier during spoken presentations, chanting, and meditation programs, delivering a level of support that was previously not possible.
‘After spending more time with the system, we’ve found it performing well beyond our expectations,’ reports Philip Fraser, a meditation teacher at the centre. ‘Even during small gatherings when guests are seated on the floor close to the stage and the hall’s reflective surfaces are more exposed, everyone can still hear clearly and consistently. We’re also getting a balanced, full-range sound for music performances.’
More: www.renkus-heinz.com