Celebrating Islamic arts and culture, Toronto’s new Aga Khan Museum has designed its 350-seat auditorium to support a wide range of music, speech and film reinforcement requirements. Key to this flexibility is a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system.
Designed for utmost flexibility by Martin Van Dijk, senior consultant of Toronto-based Engineering Harmonics, the Mina system can be used in a number of different configurations: ‘Mina has helped us use the space far beyond its original intentions,’ says Museum Production Manager, Jorge Rodriguez. ‘The auditorium was originally intended for use as a lecture hall, or with small acoustic ensembles, but when our performing arts department was formed, we decided to do more and to push the boundaries. Martin pointed us toward a Meyer Sound solution in different configurations, which was a brilliant decision.’
The auditorium also features a DiGiCo SD9 digital console, Shure wireless microphone systems, and a Christie CP2220 digital cinema projector. The Mina system comprises a flown centre array of six Mina and three CQ-1 boxes, supported by six MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers for front fill and two 500-HP subwoofers.
The array can function alone for lectures, while two CQ-1 loudspeakers can be flown or placed on stage for concert performance configurations. The third CQ-1 can be placed centre stage to complete an LCR behind-screen cinema system. ‘Mina works very well with the acoustics of this space,’ Rodriguez says. ‘The auditorium’s small size and live acoustics project quite a lot of ambient sound, but the linear response of Mina allows the sound engineer to seamlessly blend the room sound with the reinforced sound.’
Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, the Aga Khan Museum shares a site with a public park and garden designed by Lebanese-Serbian landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic and the Ismaili Centre, Toronto, designed by Indian architect Charles Correa. The museum auditorium hosts a variety of concerts by international musical artists as well as dance performances, film screenings, seminars, symposia and conferences.
More: www.meyersound.com
