Digital audio meets smart lighting at Raffles
Published: ASIA
SINGAPORE: Thirty years have passed since Raffles City Convention Centre (RCCC) opened its doors. At the heart of this function space, the 3,200-capacity Fairmont Ballroom is one of the largest column-free ballrooms in Singapore. Renowned for housing one of the largest chandeliers in the world, it was the first Asian hotel ballroom to install Smart Light Technology, which at the time of its original installation, was a state-of-the-art lighting system providing precision lighting and the creation of stunning effects.
The 5,600 sq-m Fairmont Ballroom can be divided by floor to ceiling panel walls into the distinct Collyer, Padang and Canning sections. An upper level control room looking out onto the entire space amalgamates all past and present audio, lighting and video equipment that enable room-combining operations in three large rack units. A large inventory of vintage compressors, crossovers, controllers, limiters and EQs from Klark Teknik, dbx, BSS and 3G remain in situ as a reminder of the days when a Woodworx L-C-R three way system designed by a US consultant provided FOH loudspeaker functionality.
As service engineers for the facility, Lingtec was called upon to replace the previous existing ceiling speaker system. ‘The ornate ceiling with the chandelier and 190 Martin lighting fixtures concealed in it, restricted any further works that could be carried out,’ explained Lingtec director Poong Liang Lu and sales Francis Rozario. Similarly, the projection systems are portable in nature as no ceiling suspended lifts could be installed. ‘So it was simply a case of swapping the 12-inch models in the 8m height ceiling.’ JBL Control 328 12-inch models now provide ample coverage which have been boosted in the lower frequencies with the addition of a further 10 18-inch subwoofer models. The Control 328 and subwoofer models are respectively powered by QSC PLD4.2 4-channel and RMX4050 2-channel amplifiers, for which new cabling and conduits connect the terminations.
The upgraded audio system in the Fairmont Ballroom can now be digitally controlled following the addition of a Rane HAL system replacing the racks of shielded analogue controlled equipment. The Collyer, Padang and Canning ballrooms are now served by dedicated HAL2 multiprocessors for all their room combining/separation, paging and distributed music requirements. ‘We programmed all the necessary presets into the processors, supporting 8x8 I/O balanced analogue connections,’ furthered Mr Rozario. Volume control can be accessed on a remote panel at the rear of each room, although the technicians also access HAL’s web addressable parameters via their laptops and tablets.
‘HAL provides the venue with all the necessary gain and feedback control together with crossover, noise gate, compressor and limiter parameters,’ furthered Mr Bracterga, system engineer of Lingtec. Rane DA216S distribution amplifiers with two balanced inputs and 16 outputs compensate for signal loss on some of the longer speaker cabling runs. Redundancy was also factored into the new design, for which Lingtec interleafed the cabling to alternate speakers in the event that a cable is severed. RPM44 programmable multiprocessors have also been added to the control room racks for the very same purpose. ‘The old audio system was beyond servicing as we could no longer rely on spare parts,’ confirmed RCCC’s guest services manager Richard Chen. ‘You don’t realise how much an audio system ages over time until you finally upgrade. We’re benefitting from Rane HAL processing as it saves us time and allows us to easily configure the loudspeaker parameters wherever and whenever we want.’