The Sydney Coliseum has become the first venue in the Southern Hemisphere to deploy an L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal sound system. Hurrairah bin Sohail reports.
When it comes to performance venues in Sydney, the first thing that pops to mind is the Opera House. This
is a fact that was in the mind
of the developer of the Sydney
Coliseum, a recently established
performance venue in Sydney.
Gerry Gavros, brand manager
at Jands, says: “The Sydney
Coliseum had high aspirations.
Of course, the Sydney Opera
House is great and remains
iconic, but the aim was to match
or even better the experience
provided in the western part of
Sydney. Sydney is very large and
its geography and population can
definitely support a new, high-end performance venue.”
Additionally, Sydney
Coliseum is looking to cater to
a varied segment of the market.
Nick Orsatti from Fredon says:
“The Sydney Coliseum is very
flexible. It can be a flat floor with
a balcony area or completely
tiered seating. This means it can
support events like concerts,
musical performances and
banquet style events with
seated tables. The venue can
accommodate anywhere
between 1,000 to 2,000 people
depending on the mode of
operation.”
Integration duties were
split between Fredon, which
was responsible for the AV
package, and Jands Venue
Engineering which was
handling the entire theatre
package. Marshall Day
Entertech served as the
acoustic consultant for the
project.
The brief from the client was
clear and Gavros says: “There
was a real drive from the end
user to have cutting, leading
edge technology when it came
to audio. They wanted to set
themselves apart and the way to
do this would be to make sure
that the AV systems chosen were
the best and that they were truly
different from what was being
offered at other venues.”
However, pinpointing what
qualifies as ‘cutting, leading edge
technology’ for audio is not
simple. Gavros details: “As the
distributor for L-Acoustics the
timing just aligned perfectly
for us when we first planted the
seed about L-ISA. It was at a
stage when L-Acoustics started to
really market the technology and
artists around the world began to
embrace it. Coincidently, it also
just happened that the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra was
performing the soundtrack from
the Harry Potter movies using
the L-ISA Hyperreal sound
system at the Adelaide
Entertainment Centre. We invited
the client down to have a listen
and they walked away from that
convinced that L-ISA was it.
They had obviously heard the
competing systems on the market
and in their minds the L-ISA
Hyperreal sound system was
what stood out as a clear winner.”
The Sydney Coliseum has
become the first venue in
the Southern Hemisphere to
deploy the L-ISA Hyperreal
sound system. The 50 Karai
loudspeakers take the shape
of a five-stack frontal system
with the subwoofers centre flown
across the proscenium arch.
According to Gavros the system
and the venue were a match:
“We strive to create an ‘L-ISA
zone’ that encompasses at least
75% of the whole audience area.
The architecture of the theatre
was ideal for L-ISA and the Karai
frontal system offered. For the
Sydney Coliseum, we ended up
with an L-ISA zone that covers
87% of the entire audience area.”
However, the choice of
L-Acoustics the L-ISA Hyperreal
sound system meant that the
scope of the project changed.
Orsatti says: “The original audio
system was very traditional, it
was a simple left-centre-right
sound system. Long story short,
what was essentially a fairly
standard theatre solution
morphed into an immersive
sound project when we shifted
to the L-Acoustics L-ISA system.”
The change to the L-ISA
Hyperreal sound system meant
that the project required a
redesign of the audio system
which then cascaded over to
other aspects of the project. One
part of the original design did not
change though; the venue needed
to accommodate both the use of
the installed system whilst also
allowing for rental systems to be
bumped in to suit the differing
act requirements.
Orsatti provides further
information: “On the technical
side of things, the design for
immersive audio is very different
from the design of a traditional
audio system. Every channel
needs to be individually brought
into the console so that it can
be placed correctly in the
soundscape. This meant that
we were now dealing with a
much higher channel count
than before.”
He continues: “We also had
to make changes to the way
power and the signal would
be distributed. The original
installation had power and signal
transmission over the network.
The switch to L-Acoustics threw
that design out of the window.
We needed to find a home for
the amplifier rack which had
to be close proximity to the
loudspeakers to ensure we don’t
have too much signal loss. There
are some stringent installation
requirements where all the cable
runs have to be similar to ensure
commonality.”
Orsatti details how the signal
transmission problem was
handled: “We settled on using
MADI infrastructure because it
is widely used in the production
industry. Using MADI also meant
that we could bring in a secondary
front of house console for support
if needed. We have a fair bit of
knowledge on how to put such a
system together and we went
through and optimised it.”
The Digico console was
expanded with the help of an
Optocore loop to account for the
L-ISA Hyperreal sound system’s
channel count and differing
operational requirments.
Stageboxes were reconfigured to
allow for simple cross hire from
rental organisations when more
input channels were required.
QSC Q-Sys Core DSPs were
utilised to handle back of house
audio and paging requirements,
and also stage management
control, bells and paging.
With the Sydney Coliseum
project complete, Orsatti gives
his thoughts about the impact
the L-ISA Hyperreal sound
system has made: “When it
comes to audio, we’ve all gone
and heard the speakers and been
there for the demos. I’ve always
walked
out thinking that it sounds great.
But what does ‘great’ mean to
someone who is coming to see
a show at a performance venue?
Are they truly getting a better
experience? After finishing the
Sydney Coliseum project and
hearing L-ISA in action, I can
honestly say that the immersive
audio experience delivered is
something that everyone will be
able to realise is vastly superior.”
Gavros concludes: “Working
and growing in the AV industry,
we have always had to deal with
the fact that we are asked to
locate our loudspeakers where
the architect or production
manager dictates and we are
always jostling for space with
lighting and visual elements.
But with the L-ISA system design
stage, audio is given a little more
priority which allows us and the
sound engineer to be creative
and in turn provide the audience
with a total immersive and
engaging experience. As we
continue to develop and promote
this technology in our industry,
we will find that it becomes the
norm. We are now at a stage of
educating our industry and
changing mindsets. But the
future definitely looks exciting.”