Lütfi Kirdar turns to dampb
Published: MEA
TURKEY: Lütfi Kirdar conference centre in Istanbul has recently gone through an audio refit to make it expand its functionality. The new solution for the acoustically treated main hall has been designed by Spectrum Show Technologies and Production Services. ‘Frankly the room is suitable for more than just speech based events, even if this is its prime function,’ explained Spectrum owner Berkant Kuru.
‘This year the venue wanted to upgrade to an installed system that would not only perfectly serve conferences, but also had the headroom and sonic capabilities for contemporary pop music,’ explained Serkan Goren from Display Sound & Lighting Systems. ‘Before joining Display I had been technical manager at the conference centre for three years and had witnessed first-hand the expertise of Spectrum who had been providing long term rental support at Lütfi Kirdar for many years,’ he continued. ‘On the audio side this has been mainly T and Q-Series systems from d&b audiotechnik.’
Spectrum’s design solution for the main hall was based around elements from these two loudspeaker systems, plus some added extras, which is why Display, as the Turkish Distributor for d&b, called in the expertise of the manufacturer’s Applications Support department.
‘Of course the intelligibility had to be absolutely adequate for speech, since this clearly will be the most frequent programme material,’ began Janko Ramuscak from the d&b Application Support team. ‘Even so, Spectrum had been asked to design a system also suitable for music and so as well as full range delivery from the T10 and Q1 for the flown left/right system and fill, they had also specified six Q-Subs and a J-Infra each side of stage. There was to be nothing half hearted about the system, it had to deliver to audiences at opposite ends of the listening spectrum.’
Commissioning took place early autumn with Mr Ramuscak reporting, ‘an average STI of 0.67 with a standard deviation of only 0.044 after we completed final tuning. With assistance from Serkan the Spectrum team had prepared the system really, really well. We completed tuning in less than a day,’ he explained. ‘The specification included the d&b R70 for remote control and via a Wi-Fi router we all enjoyed using iPads and smart phones to change parameters via VNC. Later we tested a lavalier microphone on stage without EQ up to specified levels and found headroom to spare; something the operators, all of whom knew the hall well, had not expected to be possible.’
Mr Serkan was clear why Spectrum has stuck with d&b loudspeaker systems for so long. ‘There is great confidence investing in German manufactured products. d&b’s back-up resources makes installation easy, the size and weight of the devices considering their performance in terms of sound levels and their exceptional hi-fi quality is very attractive to the installer. And as I saw for myself when working at Lütfi Kirdar, d&b received the first three ranks in domestic and international demands of riders.’
‘The long term commitment of Spectrum to Lütfi Kirdar is what made this work,’ concluded Mr Ramuscak. ‘That’s not a term I hear used very often in the world of pro-audio these days, but the fact remains they knew the room well and they knew what would work with a variety of demands.’