First Funktion One Australia outdoor cinema install
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: In a first for the company, Funktion One Australia installed a sound reinforcement system at an outdoor cinema at the recent Shadow Electric film-screening event held at The Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. As a manufacturer more commonly associated with nightclub venues, the project gave the company a chance to apply its systems to an entirely new application.
Jay Rayner, the creative producer of the venture, approached Funktion One Australia directly, giving it the following brief: ‘create the best sounding outdoor cinema in true Dolby 5:1’.
‘Outdoor cinema has become a staple of the summer entertainment scene In Melbourne, and historically these makeshift cinemas offer stunning locations, but unfortunately pristine, accurate audio has never been part of the mix, until now,’ said Funktion One Australia’s John O’Donnell.
Three Resolution 1.5 speakers were chosen to work as the left, centre and right screen speakers. ‘With 90-degrees coverage and even response down to 50Hz, the R1.5 was the perfect choice, and given that the centre speaker carries 60 to 70 per cent of the workload in most films, it needed to be capable of a serious output, which was no problem,’ Mr O’Donnell explained.
The bass channel was implemented with an F221 double 21-inch bass cabinet, driven with 1,500W to each speaker. Meanwhile, eight F101 compact monitor speakers were used for the surround cabinets. ‘They they gave the space the beautiful ambience that the film sound designers had so painstakingly crafted in the studio,’ he added.
‘The space the system had to work in was acoustically very difficult,’ Mr O’Donnell admitted. The area in question comprised a concrete floor in a quadrangle shape with buildings on three sides. ‘Whilst this was visually stunning (especially when lit at night), this meant that speaker placement, alignment and EQ were extremely important, however without an audience it was impossible to get this right,’ he continued.
To address this problem, a free screening was held before the actual show times and alignment and EQ of the system was completed with the ‘test’ audience. ‘The result was brilliant, and the producers were very happy with the result, and on Sundays, the system catered for DJs before the films – something Funktion One is well used to!’ he laughed.