Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre acquires fixed dampb system
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Having been granted a budget by the HK Arts committee, Hong Kong’s Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre has been supplied with a fixed d&b audiotechnik sound reinforcement system. Prior to the installation the venue, located in New Kowloon, used a portable system.
Many of Hong Kong’s residential communities are served by Civic Centres, which integrate multiple different services for the local population. At 20 years old, the Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre is the oldest of its kind. The third-level, 346-seat multipurpose hall is hired out to drama and theatre groups, dancers and musical performers at various times of the day. As such it required a versatile speaker system to keep the various budding professionals happy in their pastimes.
Since the withdrawal of the previous PA system in 2007, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department has managed to keep the shows going with its portable Mackie SRM450 speakers. The polypropylene cabinets are used extensively in the smaller dance and drama studios, but could only provide limited coverage in the multipurpose hall.
However, resident technical manager Sunny Wong alongside sound and maintenance engineers Eddie Chan and Mr Koh were granted a budget from the HK Arts committee recently, which was put to good use. Having fully evaluated which speaker systems were available, they ultimately opted for a d&b audiotechnik installation. Three arrays have been ceiling suspended consisting of single Ci60 and Ci90 speakers in each array, powered by D6 amplifiers. The complete design and installation was conducted by Sound Works Supplies.
‘The dimensions of this venue are better suited to theatrical productions,’ explained Mr Wong. ‘However, 70 per cent of the productions are drama based and as such vocals and speech intelligibility were the main considerations to focus on.’
The Ci90 cabinets offer optimal down-fill coverage for the front seats, whilst the Ci60 speakers with a narrower horizontal dispersion cover the rear seats. Four E0 speakers provide coverage for the front-fill seats, whilst the lower frequencies have been extended with the addition of three Ci7-SUB subwoofers, installed under the stage. Other productions include Beijing Opera, dance and music productions. For the latter, d&b MAX12 monitors are placed on the stage.
‘I’ve been really impressed by the frequency response of this system,’ furthered Mr Wong. ‘We only use the central cluster during dance and drama productions on its own, but switch to an L-R system for musical productions.’
No digital speaker management system has been added to the rack, as Mr Wong and Mr Chan prefer to configure delays on the front-fills, low cut filtering on the monitors and some EQ on the Ci90s via the R1 remote control software integrated into the D6 amplifiers. ‘We only had a three week period in February 2011 in which to undertake all the trunking and cabling before installing and tuning the PA system,’ Mr Chan declared. ‘However, everything went according to plan.’