Article

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Church Sound: The Keys To Presenting Audio That Will Engage Your Congregation

Producing great sound in a worship service can seem as elusive as finding a soloist who always sings on key.

However, this doesn’t have to be so.

Many factors influence the quality of sound: room acoustics, sound-system design and performance, operator experience, and quality of musical performance.

Here are some practical tips on how to tie all of that together to get the best sound.

Understand the Basics
To get the most out of a sound system, you must first understand how it works.

Basically, acoustic energy, or the sound you make, is converted to electrical energy via a microphone, then combine with other mics or input devices, and are then “colored” or equalized via a mixer.

The mixer sends the sound through processing equipment (crossover, equalizer, signal delay, usually a single DSP box), then to amplifiers to boost the signal. Finally, the amplified signal goes to speakers, where it’s transferred back to acoustic energy.

The key components of sound-processors, amplifiers, and speakers-should be professionally designed and set in a church, then left alone. The mixing board is where you should make adjustments in tone and sound levels.

Build a Sound Team
A sound system won’t run by itself. It needs a sound crew to function to its true potential. Some ideas on recruiting and developing a good crew:

I like to recruit one-on-one, much like a hunter who goes to the woods looking for a specific target. The hunter may see ducks, squirrels, and turkeys, but he sits tight for a certain kind of deer. When he sees exactly what he’s looking for, he pursues it with vigor.

Be the same way when developing a sound team. Decide what kind of people you need, and then recruit them vigorously.

You could also try the fishing-pond approach. That means recruiting candidates from a select gathering of people.

For example, when Marty O’Connor was at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, he and his video crew offered a yearly seminar on how to make great home movies with your camcorder.

After the seminar, the crew would bring out their studio cameras and invite seminar attendees to try operating one of the “big boys.”

All the while they’d look for people in that “pond” with special aptitude for working on a video crew. Then they’d recruit them. Members of a sound crew might be found through a similar approach.

Grow A Team
The acronym TEAM - meaning “Together Everybody Achieves More” - particularly applies to a sound crew. To be truly effective, team members must grow together on the job in knowledge and experience as well as in spirit and emotion.

Make sure that you provide spiritual, emotional, and technical food for sound-team members.

When I was on staff at a large West Michigan Church, every week, I spent about 30 minutes in prayer and devotions with my sound crew before our hour-plus sessions in sound training. That time helped unite us and focus our work.

It’s also important to keep the team informed of what’s happening in the sound industry, such as regular visits to ProSoundWeb and reading other industry publications and sites.

Finally, to encourage ownership and 100-percent participation, every sound-crew member should be encouraged to make suggestions about the sound system. I took seriously crew member suggestions on equipment purchases.

Thank the team. Saying thanks is powerful, but showing thanks is even better. My favorite way of showing gratitude to crew members was to send thank-you notes to them and their spouses.

Aim For Consistency
“We are what we repeatedly do,” Aristotle once wrote. “Therefore, excellence is a habit not an act.”

Doing everything right with sound in a performance is hard enough, but repeating it can seem impossible, especially when different volunteers are involved.

To raise the percentage of success, standardize the layout of your mixing console, label it, and then get everyone to conform to it.

Example: I always lay out my mixing console with drums on the left, followed by bass, electric and acoustic guitar, then keyboards, and finally vocals.

The lead vocal is always in the farthest right channel next to the subgroups and masters. I’ve been doing that for the past 25 years. My technical team follows this layout consistently.

How you lay out the board doesn’t matter as long as it’s logical and everyone follows it. The advantage of such a layout is that when something goes wrong or there’s feedback, you know instinctively what to grab to fix it.

Aim for consistency also with equipment storage. Organize cables, stands, and mics so that even with last-minute changes, such as having to work with five singers instead of the four you had planned on, you can secure the proper equipment to keep a rehearsal moving.

Preparation, Preparation
When I was on staff as a technical director, I was blessed with a worship leader who provided worship-service outlines weeks in advance. I used to kid him that the Spirit moved in him two weeks before it hit the congregation.

One lesson I learned from him is that someone who is well prepared is able to respond much better to last-minute complications than someone who wings it.

I have served as a consultant to churches that supposedly had sound system problems, only to discover that the real problem was poor preparation.

Example: A sound team shows up at 8 a.m. to set up for a 9:30 a.m. service in a temporary facility. By 9 a.m. the sound system is set up, and a CD is playing. Musicians begin arriving for a last-minute rehearsal.

The service starts seven minutes late. That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is that there has been no time for sound checks and input testing. The service proceeds, accompanied by hums, cracks, pops, and a lousy sound mix.

Ninety minutes later, the sound crew is exhausted, the musicians disgusted, and the pastor fed up. He decides to call in a sound expert.

He needn’t have spent the money. Preparation would have alleviated most of the problems.

Preparation means sending information to your team well in advance of a service. Email (or post on the church’s website) the order of worship for the Sunday service to crew members early in the week so they can get a jump-start on what they’ll need to do.

Preparation also means performing sound checks with musicians prior to the service and testing all microphones. Even if the same person leads worship every week, he or she may have a cold or feel insecure about a piece of music and need their monitor turned up.

The key is to show up early, anticipate the unexpected, and be prepared. You can’t be too prepared.

Provide Technical Training
Offer ample opportunities for your team to grow in technical knowledge.

Find a sound expert you respect and hire that person to come in two to four times a year to train your crew.

Team up with other churches to sponsor a regional conference on sound, like the HOW TO seminars.

Send for brochures and guides or reprint articles on sound for your crew.

Many manufacturers, such as Shure and Crown, provide free guides, and often, these are posted online for convenient download.

Encourage your crew to participate in focused online discussions about sound with online communities such as the Church Sound Forum here on PSW.

Lead your team by example. If you want your crew to be on time, be on time yourself. If you want others to keep the sound booth and related areas organized and clean, keep your areas organized and clean.

Encourage Relationships
To do its work well, a sound crew must work in harmony with musicians and pastors.

All too often there’s friction between sound technicians and performing artists. Some of that could be eased organizationally by including sound technicians in the church’s fine arts or music ministry.

The lead person of the technical team would report directly to the worship leader or minister of music—no one else. They would work things out, striving for communication and harmony.

Example: I saw how that could work at a recent sound seminar. A local worship leader and his worship team participated in a session I led titled “Mixing a Worship Team: A Live Demonstration.”

We purposefully had no rehearsal or sound check before the seminar. We merely tested the inputs to make sure they were working.

During the seminar, a conflict arose between the piano and keyboard players. The keyboard player wanted more of him in the monitor, and the piano player wanted less. The problem: they were sharing a monitor mix.

The worship leader let me know about the problem, and I told the players that since there were no more monitor mixes available, they should work out a solution together.

He led the players through a quick trial on the monitor until the players reached agreement. They reached harmony in less than three minutes.

Tip: The key was the worship leader’s willingness to tell me about the problem, and the opportunity I had to explain the setup limitations to the players.

I’ve discovered that when technical people are given the opportunity to explain a problem, performers are very cooperative.

Of course, technicians must never abuse that trust by blaming their mistakes or ignorance on equipment, or by refusing to listen to a musician who needs adjustments in a monitor.

Trust can also be destroyed by performers or technicians whose egos get in the way of working with others. In the sound booth or in front of a mic, the motto should be: “Check your ego at the door.”

I also know how important a good relationship can be between a technician and artist. I spent four years working with the same worship leader.

We had such rapport that we could communicate from sound booth to platform via hand signals.

When the worship leader put two hands on the mic, I knew I had to put more piano level in the monitor. Two hands with a raised index finger meant he wanted more voice. A step back from the monitor meant it was too loud.

The signals worked well because I kept my eyes on the platform, and the worship leader always made eye contact before signaling.

Serve Others First
If we serve others first, we have far less friction between sound technicians and performers. Here are some ways sound people can serve others to enhance their ministry to the church:

Show up early to set the sound equipment with enough time left to pray with speakers and singers before a service.

Provide little extras for platform participants, such as a glass of fresh, cold water near the lectern.

Take the pastor and/or worship leader out to lunch in appreciation for their support. Tell them how much you value their contribution.

Explain to singers or speakers what you’re doing to adjust their sound and why.

For example, tell them you’re moving a monitor two feet to the left so that the sound from the monitor is in the non-pickup area of the microphone and will thus give them a purer sound with less risk of feedback.

The Ultimate Goal
The sound ministry is like custodial service. When it’s done well, few will notice. When done poorly, everyone will notice.

Work as a respectful team, and you’ll find that your sound is consistently excellent, and you’ll have a great time to boot!

Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.

The Music People Commit To Line 6 Live Sound Products

Line 6, Inc. has announced that TMP Pro, the installation division of The Music People, is now an official distributor of the Line 6 live sound product line.

TMP Pro will offer the XD-V family of digital wireless systems, StageScape digital mixer, and StageSource loudspeaker systems to its installation and integration contractors.

Lee Stein, Director of U.S. Sales, Commercial Audio for Line 6, states, “We’re thrilled to have The Music People on board as a distributor. They provide unparalleled support to their customers in the commercial channel, and we’re positive they will prove to be a great to partner for us in this new endeavor.”

TMP Pro distributes and supports a wide range of products to AV contractors, installation integrators and electrical contractors.

“These innovative Line 6 products fill a critical niche in the installation market,” notes Jim Mingo, National Account Specialist for TMP Pro. “In particular, the XD-V digital wireless is a very attractive product. It’s on the cutting edge of technology because users don’t have to worry about what frequencies are currently in use, or what frequencies the government might take away in the future. That makes it perfect for a wide range of house of worship, government and educational installs – especially when you consider the price point.”

With digital wireless, visual touchscreen mixing, and intelligent loudspeaker systems, Line 6 now offers a complete live sound ecosystem. Integrators, installers, and institutional end users are invited to see these innovative products shown in Booth C10448 at Infocomm, June 13-15 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Line 6

Designer Notebook: MLA Compact, A Lower Profile Approach From Martin Audio

In 2010, Martin Audio brought a radical new approach to touring sound with the Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA), an integrated system that is self-powered with six channels of amplification and DSP, networked with both audio and control on the same cable.

Furthering the package is a combination of cellular drive and fast, automated optimization software. Cellular technology helps achieve phase-coherent summation across the respective coverage area, holding both frequency response and SPL within a very tight, user-specified window.

The new MLA Compact widens the scope of applications, designed for situations not requiring the full power and throw of the full-size MLA, or where a smaller, lighter system is called for. It is scalable, and can meet the needs medium-scale touring and fixed installations such as concert halls, theatres and churches.

The footprint of an individual cabinet is 31 (w) x 11 (h) x 19.7 (d) inches, and weight is 109 pounds. As a point of comparison, a full-size MLA box measures 44.7 (w) x 14.6 (h) x 26.5 (d) inches and weighs 193 pounds.

In The Box
Compact loudspeakers often use direct radiators for the lows and mids because more efficient acoustic technologies are hard to adapt to small cabinet volumes. The 3-way MLA Compact, however, applies new slot and horn-loading techniques to the low and mid sections.

Like it’s bigger brother, MLA Compact presents an integrated approach. (click to enlarge)

Further, it deliberately avoids the use of coaxial, co-entrant or cross-firing midrange/HF driver arrangements. which introduce acoustic discontinuities that can affect the on- and off-axis frequency response of both MF and HF sections. In MLA Compact, the MF and HF horns are completely separate in order to produce consistent, true 100-degree horizontal constant directivity coverage.

The LF section utilizes 2 x 10-inch (2.5-inch voice coil) neodymium drive units in a unique Hybrid configuration that fosters acoustic efficiency and enhances “punch.” Each driver is slot-loaded into a truncated horn with a low flare rate, to give a high sensitivity of 103 dB @ 1m/2.83V. The slot-loading allows the twin LF drivers to be optimally spaced within the enclosure.

A look at the slot- and horn-loading approaches inside MLA Compact. (click to enlarge)

This double-source arrangement significantly improves the directivity control of the LF section maintaining the 100-degree beamwidth down to 250 Hz and reducing mid-bass output at the sides and rear of the array. The LF drivers are very high excursion with vented poles to reduce power compression and eliminate turbulent air noise.

MLA Compact has separate MF and HF horns with horizontal constant directivity characteristics, so the horizontal off-axis response tracks the on-axis response exactly.

The MF horn utilizes 2 x 5-inch (1.5-inch voice coil) neodymium drivers to produce 109 dB @ 1m/2.83V, which represents a significant gain on the typical efficiency of 102 dB found in cross-firing direct radiator designs in comparably sized systems. It’s possible due to acoustic and thermal designs that utilize forced-air cooling and a thermally conductive aluminum housing.

The I/O capability on the back of each cabinet. (click to enlarge)

The HF section includes 4 x 0.7-inch-exit neodymium compression drivers that feed separate horns providing 100-degree horizontal constant directivity. The driver combination replaces the more traditionally used large-format compression driver and has less distortion, as well as having a more extended HF response.

Instead of adopting flat wavefronts as advocated by some of the early proponents of touring line arrays, sophisticated in-house BEM (Boundary Element Method) modeling techniques have shown that slightly curved wavefronts deliver much more consistent SPL to the audience where the array is curved – as in most practical, real-world applications.

Placing a kite-shaped “wedge” part-way down the horn enables a specific, desired curvature to be achieved – depending on the shape of this wedge.

In the case of MLA Compact, the HF wavefront is curved to provide a balance between optimal summation over distance and summation at the maximum inter-cabinet splay angle of 10 degrees.

Power & Control

Each MLA Compact has 5-channel Class D amplification, DSP and network electronics that enables the individual cells within each enclosure to be driven with the exact signal determined by DISPLAY 2.1 optimization software for independent control of each of the 24 LF cells, 48 MF cells and 48 HF cells in a 24-box array.

The amplification package provides a total of 2.1kW continuous and 4.2kW peak output. One channel powers both LF drivers in parallel and two channels drive each mid independently. For the HF section, two channels drive the four HF drivers in parallel pairs, making a total of five independently powered acoustic cells per enclosure.

Switched-mode power supplies auto-range to global mains voltages from 100 to 240 volts, 50/60 Hz, while Power Factor Correction smooths out the mains current draw over the whole of the AC waveform. Amplifier monitoring via U-NET includes input signal, output signal at the drive unit terminals, limiter status, heatsink temperatures and driver fault conditions.

Onboard DSP performs all crossover and EQ functions via a combination of IIR and advanced FIR filtering. Fast VanishingPoint FIR filters provide the ability physically separate the MF and HF horns so they do not compromise each other’s constant directivity dispersion pattern, yet achieve the spatial performance of a single device.

MLA Compact incorporates an automated optimization process. (click to enlarge)

Arrays can be remotely controlled over U-NET from a PC or wireless tablet running VU-NET control software with its intuitive graphical interface. VU-NET also enables the user to switch on enclosure identification LEDs with automatic identification of neighboring enclosures and connectivity confirmation.

Dialing It In

DISPLAY2.1 is the “brain” of MLA Compact, providing a virtual environment within which arrays can be configured and optimized, providing highly accurate prediction of the direct sound produced over the audience and also and over areas where sound is to be avoided. It also bolsters array design and deployment, generating accurate spot frequency responses and comprehensive rigging information, including mechanical load safety analysis.

DISPLAY2.1 interacts with MLA Compact’s onboard DSP to deliver consistent sound throughout a venue. It calculates the filter parameters for each enclosure, down to the resolution of individual drive units, and uploads them to the enclosure via the U-NET digital network. The link between DISPLAY2.1 and an individual MLA Compact enclosure is live and bidirectional.

DISPLAY2.1 reverses the sequence of array design software. Starting with a specified SPL and response over the audience floor, the software works backwards to configure an array that will give the required result.

BEM plots of a horn in an array (left) and of a single horn on its own. (click to enlarge)

Since it is a practical impossibility to measure every possible array configuration with different combinations of enclosure numbers, splay angles and drive signals, an accurate acoustic model is essential.

The previously noted BEM (Boundary Element Method) models enable hundreds of virtual array configurations to be investigated in fine detail in a virtual 3D environment. This level of research has transformed our understanding of how arrays really work and shown that the acoustic interactions between array elements are much more complex than originally thought.

An important factor and industry first is the inclusion in the model of the previously ignored effects of adjacent enclosures. If these are not incorporated into the model, prediction errors can be over 8 dB in the midrange. Including the effect of adjacent cabinets is key to the accuracy of the optimization process and increases the accuracy of the acoustic model of MLA Compact.

Completing The Package

The loudspeaker rigging system allows up to 24 enclosures to be suspended via its 2-point-lift flybar, and the same hardware can also be used for single point lifting of up to 12 cabinets, as well as ground stacking up to six high. Inter-cabinet connections utilize custom quick-release pins.

All loads are borne by the integral metalwork and release pins - not the enclosure. Accompanying software determines the safe limits and tilt angles of a specific array, with BGV C1 safety calculations done on the fly.

The enclosure is made of birch and poplar ply construction and finished with a thick polyurea coating. The enclosure sides are fitted with replaceable, steel-reinforced rubber moldings with integral interlocking skids, and an ergonomic bar-handle facilitates rigging and general handling. MLA Compact is supplied in flight-cased pairs, with the base doubling as the wheelboard for the pair.

The companion DSX subwoofer offers is a dual-18-inch (4-inch voice coil) ferrite drivers in reflex-loaded enclosure with four flared ports, designed to improve linear airflow. Each driver is housed in its own separate chamber to move any cabinet resonances out of band. The onboard Class D amplifier module can deliver up to 6 kW of peak power. DSX sub arrays can be designed with specific directional properties and DSP settings uploaded via the VU-NET network.

DSX Subs can be flown alongside or at the top of arrays, as well as groundstacked.(click to enlarge)

A flying version, the DSX-F Sub, can be flown alongside or at the top of MLA Compact arrays, as well as being ground stacked. A maximum of 15 DSX-F can be suspended from the MLA flying frame and symmetrical rigging allows flown DSX-F cabinets to face backwards—enabling directional flown as well as directional ground stacked arrays to be configured. The ground-stack DSX can be upgraded to the DSX–F by the addition of an easy-to-fit accessory kit.

What all of this adds up to is a compact, highly flexible package that provides startlingly consistent frequency response when listening off-axis and “walking the field.” In both mobile and permanent applications for audiences ranging up to 5,000, this is no small feat.

Jason Baird is research & development director at Martin Audio. After completing a degree in Electronic Engineering at Leeds University in England in 1991, he worked in the production industry until he was employed by Wharfedale Loudspeakers in ‘94. After starting his career in hi-fi, he spent 18 months at Fane Acoustics, designing pro audio transducers, subsequently joining Martin Audio in 1998.

Upgraded Audio At Riverside Casino Events Center Led By Renkus-Heinz Arrays

The Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, located just south of Iowa City, is also home to a multipurpose Events Center that offers a busy schedule of top name entertainment featuring artists like Big & Rich, Peter Frampton, The Robert Cray Band, and Tony Orlando, as well as hosting corporate, community and private functions.

The resort has recently upgraded its in-house audio capabilities with the installation of four Renkus-Heinz CF101LA modular point source array loudspeakers. Marvin Smejkal, owner of Sound Concepts, a production sound installation and rental company with offices in Iowa, Missouri and Florida, notes that the project presented a number of challenges.

“The original in-house, distributed voice reinforcement system was insufficient for many of the venue’s functions, but it was generally cost prohibitive to bring in a larger rental rig,” says Smejkal, adding that the self-powered CF101LA loudspeakers serve a dual purpose, both as a primary voice reinforcement system for smaller events and as center in-fill for larger PA rental rigs.

“The venue has unique requirements due to an exceptionally wide stage,” he continues, “and when we bring in a large PA for concerts, the speakers have to be positioned in a wide configuration, making a center-fill necessary. It was costly and time-prohibitive to set up and tear down a flown center cluster on a show-by-show basis. Now, the CF101LA system can be used as the primary PA for small and mid-sized events, and as a center fill to augment a larger PA systems for big concerts.”

Smejkal designed and installed a basic four-loudspeaker setup requiring no additional processing or EQ. “The venue has a portable audio/visual mixer for breakout rooms, which can simply plug into an XLR in for smaller events. The CF101LA speakers are incorporated into every large show; when we come in we have a program to add them into our rental system.

“The self-powered speakers are a cost-effective option when there is limited space to permanently install additional equipment in a venue. “The CF101LAs are convenient, and are fulfilling a wide variety of needs, both as a stand-alone system for the venue’s day-to-day needs, and in the demanding role of center fills when larger line arrays are widely spread for larger events.”

The CF101LA speakers proved to be a unique problem solver, he concludes. “Those speakers deliver at that price point. We will use them again.”

Renkus-Heinz

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

How It’s Made: Inside FaitalPRO, Driving Loudspeaker Driver Development

Although a relative newcomer to the pro audio world, Faital, headquartered in San Donato, a suburb of Italy’s business capital Milan, has more than half a century of loudspeaker driver manufacturing to its credit.

In 2006, the family-run concern launched FaitalPRO, a division of the company targeting the international pro audio market, which has grown by leaps and bounds since inception, as explained by FaitalPRO overseas sales manager Flavio Naggi, grandson of the company’s founder.

“Although my father is company CEO, my uncle is the president, and my brother is in charge of the sourcing and purchasing department, Faital has outgrown the typical family-size business format and is now an international group, with manufacturing facilities in Italy and fully-owned factories in Hungary and Spain, chosen to ensure fast coverage of the whole of Europe,” Naggi explains.

“We also have sales branches in the U.S., Mexico, France and Hong Kong,” he continues. “Our pro audio division has averaged a 70 to 85 percent annual growth rate, because our range of woofers, compression drivers and horns are appreciated as providing very high quality and long-lasting performance.”

The Faital 86,000 square-footmanufacturingplant in Chieve, Italy. (click to enlarge)

FaitalPRO did not intend shifting manufacturing or R&D to lower cost countries, so decided to focus on the higher end of the market. “We have big momentum in direct product distribution, but, although this gives more rapid gratification, OEM work is a key objective,” Naggi notes. “This takes considerable time to develop, as potential customers must decide to launch a new range of products or have a problem with a current supplier, after which you need to develop the product they need, as they don’t always buy catalog products, and this can take up to two years.

“However, we offer a guarantee of quality, continuity and R&D integrity comparable to top brands on the market, if not higher, because in many areas we have an infrastructure originally specific to our automotive background, guaranteeing the quality of processes, materials used, design and the entire development process.”

Area manager Gianluca Turra adds, “FaitalPRO began with market research to understand what the pro audio industry required for a number of key applications, then the study, concept and design of speakers that could be competitive with or better than those already available and could be produced with our highly automated production methods - able to turn out a woofer every 15 to 20 seconds, or up to 25 with 18-inch models with complex assemblies.”

Left to right, key Faital team members Gianluca Turra (area manager), Mario Passarelli (senior project leader) and Flavio Naggi (overseas sales manager) with some of the company’s drivers. (click to enlarge)

This led to the build-up of the current range of products, with senior project leader Mario Passarelli noting, “In 2008, we were the first to market an extremely high-power subwoofer with a 4-inch voice coil. Prior to our XL Series, subwoofers with 4-inch voice coils couldn’t go to more than 1,000 or 1,200 watts.

“Our extremely long excursion very high-power 18-inch subwoofer in neodymium reached 1,500 watts and beyond, which was quiet an achievement and was a trend followed by many other manufacturers.”

Avant-Garde Facility

Adjacent to the Faital headquarters is the R&D department, the starting point of all the new products and the patented technology adopted by the company.

The specialized staff of over 20 full-time technicians on the R&D team have at their disposal an impressive array of cutting edge systems and software used for the design, validating and testing of components and prototypes, as well as materials used by the company’s suppliers and many of the tools actually used on production lines.

The avant-garde facility also cooperates regularly on joint projects with universities and other bodies.

“We have a series of sophisticated instruments for checking all aspects of the components when they arrive – physical, magnetic, variations due to external influences, such as temperature,” says R&D manager Romolo Toppi. “We must also make certain that materials’ characteristics remain constant, particularly important as far as neodymium magnets are concerned, as there is considerable misconception among suppliers regarding standards.”

Loudspeaker performance is evaluated via acoustic measurements in two anechoic chambers (one fully floating), laser-based assessment, performance with large signals and analysis of geometry and behavior of moving parts.

An entire in-house validation infrastructure enables to carrying out a variety of tests on components, prototypes and end products include corrosion, thermal shock, UV rays and vibration and shock testing, to see how they’ll stand up to use (and misuse) in future applications.

Of particular importance is the capability of guaranteeing that all Faital products will be corrosion-proof, waterproof and capable of withstanding very broad thermal and vibration shocks,
making them environmentally impervious to anything mother nature (or users) will throw at them.

“A great deal of attention goes into developing components that are producible in the most economic manner and able to guarantee performance, but having implemented the strict regulations in other industry sectors enables FaitalPRO to maintain very high quality standards,” Naggi says.

A sophisticated product development process includes 3-D design, extensive prototyping, and evaluation in one of the company’s anechoic chambers.

From the incoming inspection of materials, there are stringent almost “military” level quality control and tests to ensure that products work in the conditions decided upon with clients at the beginning of the program. The company also tests, controls and even purchases the material – such as plastic – used by its suppliers.

Cones are tested on arrival before being mounted on actual loudspeakers, and there’s also a 3-D measurement system to compare components with the original models ordered. End products are also labeled to enable them to be back-tracked down the entire chain.

Highly Productive

Located in extensive tree-shaded grounds in the rural town of Chieve, Faital’s 86,000 square-foot (8,000-square-meter) manufacturing plant, just a half-hour drive from the Milan metropolis, features highly automated production lines designed for extreme flexibility.

Naggi explains: “The design and automation of the lines enables a number of different models to be produced with almost no down-time between job lots, apart from a few minutes required to reset the machines via touch panels, ensuring an extremely high productivity rate.”

Highly automated assembly lines provide precision manufacturing in addition to enabling different models to be produced with almost no down-time.

The facility’s warehouse system is equally streamlined and includes climatized zones for components more sensitive to temperature and a special dedicated adhesive store-room.

The actual production line begins with the assembly of the magnet assemblies, some of which are extremely complex, includes curing chambers that can be adapted according to the type of adhesives (also formulated to Faital specs). Along the line there are cleaning stations to make certain assemblies are absolutely free from unwanted particles (or “crap in the gap” as Turra memorably refers to it).

“Thorough cleaning inside and out before applying dust caps is fundamental, as the air gap is where you have the least space and the most movement, so very little tolerance,” he adds.

Test stations verify aspects such as correct magnetization and component bonding, and although component positioning on the line is almost all auto mated, certain aspects, such as ensuring that for example one part mounted inside another is fully inserted, require an experienced human touch.

Cone application for example is carried out manually, as soft materials are unsuited to robotic handling.

Naggi stresses, “Some manufacturers also apply adhesive manually, but dosage is of fundamental importance, since – as well as looking messy – surplus adhesive adds weight and moving mass plays an important role in performance. Applicators are thus fully automatic, have preset programs for the various speaker models and can apply two (or more) adhesives simultaneously.”

Before packaging, finished products undergo thorough test procedures, starting with a visual inspection and including tests with signals to check physical integrity visually, then computerized tests for reproduction parameters.

An extensive testing process on products covers a wide range of factors such as climate issues, shock/vibration, and much more, to see how they’ll stand up in actual use.

Bold New Directions

Never believers in resting on their laurels, the FaitalPRO team has decided to launch an additional new range of products, based entirely on ferrite magnet technology, but before going into detail on the company’s incredible commitment to this ambitious project, Naggi expresses in no uncertain terms their ideas on neodymium.

“To cut a long story short, we don’t fully agree with the ongoing panic of some of our market’s players regarding neodymium, much of which is caused by incorrect information,” he says. “My opinion - also that of the rest of our top management and sourcing department - is that the situation will not remain stressful for a long period, as there is the opportunity for other countries and other companies to start extracting rare earth minerals from several other sources not currently being exploited, including a very serious project under way at the moment for extraction from the seabed.”

FaitalPRO has adopted a two-fold approach to the situation. One part is to mitigate whatever damage has come from the way the market is behaving, purchasing on average from 200 to 220 metric tons per year of neodymium magnets.

“In the market we’re one of the largest purchasers, which is appreciated by our suppliers,” Naggi explains. “Therefore, we have the capability of minimizing the effect of cost increases for neodymium on the final price of the speaker, thus transferring to our clients as little increase as possible.”

The other part of the approach is a much stronger statement – the creation of a big alternative to neodymium products, on which the entire catalog with the exception of a few small-format models has been based so far – with the launch of an eye-popping 31 new ferrite-based products.

Just a few of the new ferrite driver models currently being rolled out by FaitalPRO. (click to enlarge)

“Although we made our neodymium products competitive with other manufacturers’ ferrite models, there was a slice of the market that wanted ferrite speakers no matter what, so before the end of the year we enter pre-series production on the new products, designed from scratch – new baskets, new magnet assemblies, new everything,” he states.

Ready To Go

The entire development process began in March, and after just nine months of intensive work, a full product range is ready to go. Company officials stressed that FaitalPRO is not discontinuing neodymium, but rather offering an alternative – in fact, it will continue offering all current neodymium models and even add new models next year, alongside ferrite, thus creating a new flow of development, not a substitute.

Turra adds, “This project is not a trade-in at the cost of quality either. In fact, some speakers actually improve with ferrite, since the magnetic field works in a completely different way, favoring some of the features that are particularly appreciated in subwoofers.”

Concluding, Naggi notes, “After lengthy simulation work and a considerable amount of in-depth practical work in the field by our R&D team, we have also devised a very innovative method for cooling the ferrite magnets mounted, so this has been a huge undertaking, a very exciting time for us, and one of the biggest achievements since the inception of the company.”

Based in Italy, Mike Clark is a long-time writer on professional audio topics.

First Baptist Church Upgrades With Stereo Pair Of Danley Jericho Loudspeakers

The parishioners at First Baptist Church of Goodlettsville, Tennessee are the first churchgoers to enjoy the fidelity, power, and clean, even coverage of a pair of Danley Sound Labs Jericho JH-90 full-range, point-source loudspeakers utilized in their new sanctuary sound system.

Professional Audio Solutions, Inc. designed and installed the first-of-its-kind project under the leadership of Scott Oliver, director of contracting and engineering. Once Oliver included the costs of labor and amplifier channels, he discovered that purchasing and installing a stereo pair of Jericho JH-90s would be less expensive – and far better sounding – than a conventional multi-box solution.

Like many churches, Goodlettsville FBC transitioned over the years from having only traditional services to offering a mix of traditional and contemporary services. Its old PA system consisted of a pair of two-way cabinets perched up among the organ registers, a location of convenience – not of ideal coverage.

“For a contemporary service, Goodlettsville was terribly under-powered,” observed Oliver. “You might say they didn’t really have a sound reinforcement system at all.”

Most of the direct sound from the instruments on stage came from their amplifiers or, for drums, the acoustic sound itself. Professional Audio Solutions won the bid based on its demonstrable record supplying churches with dimensional, engaging sound reinforcement systems.

Oliver had heard the Danley Jericho JH-90 output on several occasions, including demonstrations in a gym, in a sanctuary, and outdoors.

“The interesting thing that I noticed each time was that its clarity and depth gave me the impression of stereo vitality even when only one Jericho was in use,” he said.

Rather than approach a church sanctuary project as a live sound application, Oliver takes a different tack. He considers the sanctuary to be a critical listening environment, analogous to a studio control room or an audiophile home theater. Consistent with that, he almost always designs stereo systems, and he minimizes response-destroying interactions by using the minimum number of loudspeaker elements.

“People always ask why we install stereo systems,” he said. “To me, it’s like, why wouldn’t we? You enjoy stereo in a studio control room. You enjoy stereo in your car. Your television is stereo. Of course your iPod is stereo. Why would church be the only place you don’t get stereo?

“People rightfully point out that you can’t deliver stereo to every seat in the house. True enough, but if we can deliver stereo to eighty percent of the congregation and the remaining twenty percent doesn’t suffer for it, then why not? Stereo music makes for a decidedly more engaging worship experience.”

Goodlettsville FBC’s sanctuary is approximately 65-feet wide by 90-feet deep and 22-feet tall with a balcony in the back. Oliver modeled the room in EASE and considered a range of scenarios consistent with the “critical listening environment” perspective. There were a lot of good solutions, but the simplest and least expensive to install would be a pair of Jericho JH-90s.

“The Jericho is a truly full-range box,” he said. “No subwoofer is needed except when the music format calls for sub 30Hz extension. We were able to install the entire system in just a day-and-a-half, and because the Jericho is a true point-source box, we didn’t have to fuss with precise angles. It was simple, and the client was able to sink money into the product, not the black hole of labor.”

Six Crest Pro 200-Series amplifiers power the system, with DSP provided by a Xilica XP 4080. In addition, Oliver used a pair of Danley’s smallest speakers the, SH-Minis, for choir monitors.

Measurements of the installed system confirm the EASE predictions. The coverage is even from the front to the back and from wall to wall.

“The Danley Jericho delivers the motivating requirement of the line array system – even SPLs front to back – but because it is a point source, it achieves that even coverage without the fidelity-destroying interference typical of line array components,” explained Oliver. “It has 100dB of clean dynamic range and absolutely phenomenal fidelity. It’s like sitting behind an SSL console and listening to a perfectly aligned pair of Westlake in-wall reference monitors. The pastor’s voice is right in front of you. You can almost see the image of an acoustic guitar floating five feet away, fret noise included.”

Oliver enjoyed a lot back slapping and hand shaking after the first service with the new Jericho Horns. Already, Oliver is working with another church near Atlanta that wants the same system.

“A pair of Danley Jericho Horns will ably cover sanctuaries of 1,000 seats all the way up to 10,000,” he said. “We’re looking forward to making this a new model for churches that really want great audio performance. A system with just two Danley Jericho JH-90s is easy to design, straightforward to install, and, given its phenomenal performance, surprisingly affordable.”

Danley Sound Labs

Western Carolina University Upgrades Ramsey Activity Center With JBL Loudspeakers

Western Carolina University’s Liston B. Ramsey Regional Activity Center hosts the University’s basketball and volleyball teams as well as a variety of special events and concerts.

Although rich in tradition, WCU’s administrators recently recognized that older isn’t always better, calling on consulting firm Acoustical Design Group to help upgrade the sound system at the Ramsey Center with JBL loudspeakers.

Acoustical Design Group worked directly with WCU to come up with an ideal audio system for the Center, which was installed by Raleigh, North Carolina-based contractor Strategic Connections. “Right from the start, we were able to talk with the University about the best products for the new system,” said Ian Wolfe of Acoustical Design Group. “It was apparent the University had a preference for JBL loudspeakers, as did we.”

The system upgrade began with replacing the center cluster with JBL PD5212/95 loudspeakers in a 360-degree arrangement. “The PD5212/95 is ideal for this purpose because it delivers high output with excellent pattern control,” Wolfe said. “Because the University wanted to maintain this center cluster for its basketball and volleyball games, we used the existing framework and winching system.”

Because the center cluster is near the scoreboard above the middle of the court, supplemental PD5212/95 loudspeakers were added to fill in the acoustic shadow created by the scoreboard, along with several JBL AM7212 loudspeakers for additional downfill.

The system upgrade went beyond replacing the existing center cluster, however. “WCU wanted a system that would accommodate University-based activities such as convocations and conferences along with concerts by regional artists who previously had to bring in rental systems,” Wolfe noted.

Wolfe and his team decided on JBL VERTEC® VT4887A compact line array elements, along with a stack of six ASB6128 subwoofers. “This system does double duty—when it’s not used for concerts, it can be moved to a different location for sporting events,” Wolfe said. “We had Strategic Connections rig the speakers to a system of chain motors and cables that allow the staff to move them to the required location without having to bring in riggers.”

In addition to concerts, sporting events, and conferences, the Ramsey Activity Center hosts student orientations at the beginning of each school year. “For orientations, WCU places a stage on the floor to create a ‘mini auditorium.’ For this application, the full VERTEC system would be overkill, so two JBL CBT 100LA column speakers mounted right into the existing lighting truss provide adequate coverage for about 1,000 people,” Wolfe added.

To complete the installation, JBL Control 26CT in-ceiling speakers were placed throughout the concourse. “WCU wanted the ability to send an independent audio feed to this area for trade shows, banquets and other activities,” Wolfe said. “The concourse also overlooks the football stadium and, during games, some spectators are seated in the concourse area. The concourse loudspeakers provide stadium sound during those games.”

“We’re very happy with the sound as is WCU, and Strategic Connections did a great job in keeping everything within budget and installing everything exactly according to plan,” Wolfe concluded.

This past March WCU installed its newest Chancellor using the “RAC” as the location for the ceremony. The show consisted of a 60-piece orchestra, 30-voice choir, brass quintet, regimental drum recessional, podium mics, national anthem mic, and three wireless lapel microphones. This, to many at WCU, was the most important event to occur on campus in 17 years (since the last installation ceremony).  Ryan Fisher of WCU reported, “The arena sounded like a digital cinema soundtrack.  Everyone was thrilled and there were plenty of compliments. The system performed absolutely perfectly.” 

JBL
Harman

Renkus-Heinz Takes Center Stage At Jelenia Góra Spa Theatre

Established in 1976 by the Wroclaw actor Andrzej Dziedziul, the Zdrojowy Teatr Animacji (or Spa Theatre) in Jelenia Góra, is housed in the classically designed Spa Theatre, which was built in 1836. Used mainly for children’s productions, it also stages adult plays as well as outdoor performances.

With the prevailing demand for state-of-the-art technology in theatre, the plan for Zdrojowy Teatr Animacji’s modernization began in 2008. Enter Polish entertainment technology specialists M.Ostrowski, with a brief to supply and assemble a lighting, stage management and theatre audio system for an audience capacity of 200.

Recognizing the need for a top-performance sound reinforcement system, M.Ostrowski deployed the newest CF Series solutions from Renkus-Heinz, guaranteed to provide maximum operational reliability while delivering excellent dynamics, listening comfort and uniform sound distribution for the audience.

Using EASE 4.3 software to determine the optimum position of the loudspeakers, eight full-range Renkus-Heinz CF101LA speaker modules were arranged in two line array clusters either side of the stage, and two Renkus-Heinz CF15S subwoofer modules in a central cluster.

The deployment of active speaker modules with RHAON (Renkus Heinz Audio Operations Network) technology, allows for remote system configuration, adjustment of DSP signal corrections as well as monitoring of the state of the speakers.

In consideration of the surroundings, M. Ostrowski engineers also designed a unique mounting for the line array hoists to ensure that the equipment blends in with the theatre’s historical interiors.

M. Ostrowski also supplied and installed a complete lighting system, with a GrandMA2 Light management system; the theatre was also equipped with more than 130 projector lights and spotlights.

The installation also included a Digital Soundcraft Vi4 console; a wireless microphone system based on 500 G3 Sennheiser units; a two-way wireless communication system based on solutions by 3M and a stage-manager system based on Riedel digital intercom solutions, as well as a wireless stage action confirmation system, which was developed specifically to accommodate the needs of the Spa Theatre.

Some 20 facility panels around the stage, auditorium and audio control room provide 52 microphone inputs, 31 return lines, 17 speaker lines as well as a Cat5e network, for transmission of data, audio and video signals as well as control of devices connected to the internal network. The entire system is freely configurable at the patch panels, located within the main equipment rack. The installation also allows a show to be run from the audience, with a patch panel to plug in a console along with its peripherals.

M. Czechowicz, the Spa Theatre’s Sound Engineer, said: “The new audio system’s versatility and quality make it wonderful to work with and we’re delighted that M.Ostrowski has created this solution.”

Renkus-Heinz

WorxAudio Line Array Deployed At First Christian Church

With three services each Sunday—two of which are contemporary in nature— First Christian Church has a vibrant worship program that caters to a diverse congregation. After enduring lackluster performance from their sound reinforcement system for far too long, the decision was made to upgrade their sanctuary’s facilities with a WorxAudio compact line array.

Cape Coral, FL-based Creative Sound Solutions, LLC, an AV design/build firm that handles audio, video, lighting, and acoustics for the commercial and church markets, was contracted to design and implement the church’s new sound reinforcement system. Rob Robinson, general manager and co-owner, managed the First Christian Church project. He discussed the challenges that led to the deployment of the WorxAudio X3-P compact line array.

“First Christian Church’s sanctuary seats roughly 500 people and is 80 feet wide by 50 feet deep,” Robinson explained, “with the stage / pulpit area facing into the width of the room. As a result, the sanctuary is considerably wider than it is deep.

“This required a loudspeaker system with broad horizontal dispersion in order to provide consistent coverage from side to side as well as front to rear. The lack of consistent sound coverage with the previous sound system created a number of issues—most notably, the inability of the congregation to understand what was being said. Because of this, speech intelligibility was a crucial factor. Services are nowhere near as meaningful if people can’t understand what’s being said.”

“Music also plays a vital role in the church’s worship services,” he continued. “With a 5-piece praise band and a vocal team of roughly the same size, the new sound system had to have equally capable music reproduction characteristics.

“The WorxAudio X3-P line array is unique in that it is a 3-module, all-in-one compact system with extremely broad—160-degrees—horizontal dispersion and excellent music reproduction characteristics. After consulting with Hugh Sarvis at WorxAudio Technologies, we determined that a central cluster—positioned 20 feet over the pulpit area—would serve the room nicely.”

The X3-P’s throw capabilities mark a dramatic departure from conventional line array systems of this size and class. The upper two modules of the X3-P provide 10-degree vertical dispersion while the lower module delivers a 25-degree vertical pattern. Combined, the three modules create a 36-degree vertical system with an unusually broad horizontal dispersion of 160 degrees. The system is powered by WorxAudio Technologies’ highly-regarded PMD-1.5 digital power amp with built in DSP processing.

First Christian Church’s new sound reinforcement system was deployed in mid-November 2011 and was placed into service immediately thereafter. Since that time, Robinson reports the new system has had an extremely positive impact, “Because of the X3-P’s dispersion characteristics, we were able to cover every inch of the space. This system effectively eliminated the dead spots inherent in the previous sound system and, now, there is great sound quality and high speech intelligibility everywhere you sit. Ken Wagner, the church’s media director, was really impressed with the fact that no matter where he walks throughout the room, sound quality is remarkably consistent, clear, and free or dropouts. The new WorxAudio system has been generating rave reviews—and for us, that’s the best compliment of all.”

WorxAudio

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Understanding Sound System, Loudspeaker & Room Interactions

If one could listen to only the direct sound of a loudspeaker, the world would be a very different place!

Unfortunately, free field listening, where you have no reflections, room modes or ambient noise, is hard to achieve in everyday life, so we listen to loudspeakers in real rooms.

The interaction of a loudspeaker system and a room can be very complex to understand, model or measure!

One way to measure this interaction is to measure the impulse response of the loudspeaker/room system.

The impulse response of a typical sound system in a room contains lots of interesting information, including:

1) The delay between the loudspeaker and measurement microphone

2) The direct sound-to-reverberent level ratio

3) The time arrival, frequency content and level of reflections of sound

4) The early and late decay rates of the sound

5) The frequency response of the direct sound.

This last point is particularly interesting. The question is “What do we want to measure and why?”

Figure 1: The impulse response of a 1250 seat multi-purpose hall. The x-axis is time (~0.75 sec) and the y-axis is magnitude in dB. Note the direct sound, reflections, the reverberant decay and the noise floor.

One question that goes to the heart of “system” measurement and optimization issues is “If the impulse response contains the frequency response of the direct sound, can we separate the loudspeaker response from the room response?”

Also “If we can, do we want to?”

Figure 1 shows an impulse response displayed in the time domain.

The “spike” that represents the direct sound actually contains the frequency and phase information about the loudspeaker.

To see this information we must transform this portion of the impulse response into the frequency domain.

Figure 2: The impulse response of a 1250 seat multi-purpose hall. The vertical lines suggest a time window that ignores most of the effects of the room at frequencies whose periods are longer than the time window (i.e. low frequencies).

To achieve this isolation of the direct sound from the room response, we must select a time window that includes the direct sound but excludes the reflections and decay of the room.

Figure 2 displays such a time window. This measurement was made using a full range loudspeaker system with the microphone approximately 60’ from the loudspeaker.

Pink noise was used as a reference signal and the impulse response was calculated using a 512K FFT (although only the first ~0.75 seconds are shown).

We can take the “time windowed” data and transform it into the frequency domain using FFT mathematics.

This transformation yields a result that shows how much energy is present at each frequency, as shown in Figure 3.

You can see the pronounced roll-off of low frequency energy. You can also notice the lack of LF resolution in this figure.

The lack of resolution at LF is offset by a excess of HF resolution.

This uneven resolution between LF and HF energy is the result of the FFT mathematics used to transform the data from the time domain to the frequency domain.

Standard FFTs yield data that is distributed linearly in frequency (one data point every X Hertz).

Unfortunately, humans perceive frequency logarithmically.

Figure 3: The frequency response of the direct sound portion of an impulse response of a 1250 seat multi-purpose hall. The response was calculated using a 512 point FFT (which equals a 512/48000 or ~11 msec). As you can see the frequency response shows a pronounced LF roll-off.

This lack of LF resolution in Figure 3 is a direct result of the use of a short time window in our transformation from the time domain to the frequency domain.

It is interesting to note that this plot does not correlate with what we hear.

Simply listening to the full range loudspeaker system we were measuring made it clear that the system was reproducing LF energy down to at least 100 Hz!

I would suggest that a primary goal of an effective measurement system should be to provide results that correlate well with what we hear.

So the lack of correlation between what we have heard and what we measured suggests a modification to our approach.

As an alternate approach to trying to find a measurement that correlates with what we hear, we can try using a longer time window to “see” the LF response with better resolution.

A longer time window of approximately 250 msec is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: The impulse response of a 1250 seat multipurpose hall. The vertical lines suggest a time window that INCLUDES most of the effects of the room. The time window shown is approximately 0.25 seconds.

To transform this longer “slice” of the impulse response into the frequency domain, we will use an 8k FFT which represents 8k/48000 seconds, or 0.171 seconds.

Notice again that this time window includes both the direct sound and the response of the room.

In Figure 5 the low frequency information is seen in adequate resolution, however the high frequency results look confusing. The plot shows data that has 5 Hz resolution (i.e. one data point every 5 Hz).

While this resolution provides excellent LF resolution (between 31 Hz and 62.5 Hz there are 15 data points.

However at HF we have excessive resolution - between 4 kHz and 8 kHz there are approximately 800 data points.

Simply stated, the longer time window provides good LF resolution, but excessive HF resolution.

The result of studying these plots might lead you to conclude that in order to make measurements that correlate well with our listening experience, we must use very short time windows that isolate the direct sound at high frequencies, and increasingly longer time windows as we look at lower frequencies.

At first glance this idea might seem to violate the often quoted phrase, “One can only affect the direct sound with processing.”

However this is not the case. At mid-low and low frequencies, the interaction of a sound system and a room can be affected and optimized by signal processing.

In other words, at low frequencies (long wavelengths) the direct sound and reflections from nearby surfaces combine to form a composite response. It is this composite response that a listener hears.

The ability to measure several time windows simultaneously provides a measurement that both correlates well with human hearing and provides insight into how the signal being sent to the loudspeaker can be tailored (via equalizers, or other processing) to optimize the loudspeaker/room interaction.

Figure 5: The frequency response of the direct sound portion of an impulse response of a 1,250-seat multi-purpose hall. The response was calculated using a 8192 point FFT (which equals a 8192/48000 or ~107 msec). As you can see the frequency response shows low frequency energy that is much more pronounced than seen with the shorter time window.

Our last figure shows a measurement of a loudspeaker system that includes multiple time windows and displays both the magnitude and phase response of the “system.”

The use of multiple time windows allows one to isolate the direct sound of a loudspeaker in a real-world situation at high frequencies.

However, at lower frequencies, longer time windows that include the loudspeaker/room interaction have been found to correlate well with our listening experience.

Multiple time windows in a single measurement is an extremely interesting way to measure and optimize the response of a sound system in a room.

Sam Berkow has completed a wide variety of acoustical design projects including: concert halls, recording studios, broadcast facilities, production facilities, house of worship facilities, large multi-purpose venues, amphitheaters and stadiums. His educational background includes a masters degree in Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he specialized in acoustic measurement and design. He is also the original developer of Smaart acoustic measurement & system optimization software.

Composer-Arranger-Orchestrator Joe Trapanese Scores With ADAM Audio

In just a few years, Joe Trapanese has earned a reputation as a successful composer, arranger, orchestrator and music producer for film, television, multimedia, live theater and concerts.

“Theater work informs my music for film, TV and multimedia, much as the different work I do as a composer, arranger, orchestrator and producer influences each of those roles,” Trapanese states. “The work intermingles and makes everything better. A lot of what I do is problem solving and dealing with clients, and the more experience you have with that, the better off you are.

“My goal is to do what I do in the best possible way,” he continues, “no matter what role I play in the process. It’s just exciting to be in a room with great artists and be called on to do what I do best, which is to blur the lines between categories.”

Collaborating with other artists is a central element that comes up again and again: “I love collaborations because it’s the art of being part of something bigger than yourself. Working with directors, writers and producers elevates my work. I’m like an actor contributing another layer, so cooperation is essential. Musically I have been very fortunate to work with great artists like M83, Mike Shinoda, and Daft Punk.”

Before he sits down with his instruments, Trapanese usually has a general idea of what he’s looking for. “I start with piano and then surround myself with old analog synthesizers and all sorts of modern orchestral sounds and sound libraries that speak back to me creatively,” he explains. “I might have one idea but a certain sound leads me in a different direction and I’ll follow that. In that sense, it’s a very interactive process.”

Besides a brace of synthesizers, computers and software, his studio in Hollywood is equipped with Adam Audio monitors. When recording, he composes with Logic then uses Pro Tools like a tape machine and records it to audio so he can deliver it in the format all of the film and post houses are using. Sometimes he uses an engineer and records with a Euphonics console.

“I’m very dependent on my ADAM monitors because the way they sound is how I will hear things, the most important part of the process. I spent a lot of time listening to all kinds of monitors and eventually found that ADAM helps me deliver all of my ideas in a way that wasn’t possible with other speakers.

“The body of the sound is much better and I can more definition in the lower midrange- with film music, that’s where the body of your music is because that’s what will carry in theaters. It’s below the vocal range where you thrill people. If you have that area of the frequency range under control and you can hear it and work with it effectively, you’re mixes will translate better to the theater. The power and clarity of the ADAM A7Xs is breathtaking.”

Currently, Trapanese is scoring “Tron: Uprising,” an animated series for TV premiering June 7th on Disney XP.  Earlier this year, he contributed arrangements and orchestrations for French musician Anthony Gonzalez and his group M83’s double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.”

Adam Audio

VIP Jazz Club Zagreb Features d&b audiotechnik Loudspeakers

If jazz music is epitomized by freedom of expression then the VIP Jazz Club in Zagreb is better placed than most to understand that concept.

Located on Bana Jelacica square situated in downtown Zagreb, the square is significant for being the cradle of Croatian independence. The club itself is comparable in size to the venerable Ronnie Scott’s in London and indeed hosts a similar range of recognized international jazz artists. Like Scott’s it also boasts a d&b audiotechnik sound system.

Owner Kokanovic was already a well known jazz promoter in Zagreb when he considered opening a permanent jazz venue. At the time he called upon Miro Vidovic from Morris Studio (recording studio), a man whose skills Kokanovic admired, to act as an independent technical consultant.

“After some preliminary proposals he approached us to bid,” said Tomislav Koran of Sunflower, a Croatian pro audio specialist. “We gave an audio demonstration of the d&b audiotechnik T-Series loudspeaker system in the club and Mr Vidovic said, ‘I would be happy if my studio monitors sounded like this PA.’”

The decision made Koran set about the installation design. “I created an EASE model and assessed the live performance room; apart from a quite low ceiling the acoustic was good for amplified sound, quite dry in fact, and the T-Series system would be ideal for covering the confines of the room.

“I had my design concept approved by the d&b Application Support team, a very useful facility for Sunflower; they are always quick to respond and a ready source of advice. The VIP Club concert audio system is built around the T10 loudspeaker, the wider than usual 105° horizontal coverage pattern is well suited to a listening environment that is wide but not so long; SPLs are pretty uniform across the whole listening area.

“For low end I specified the B4-SUBs, small but with the kind of reach the discerning jazz fans enjoy.”

“I opened the The VIP Club just before Christmas 2011 and have already staged over thirty live concerts,” said Kokanovic. “Leading musicians such as John Pizzarelli, Don Byron, Dafnis Prieto, and Jason Lindner have all played and commented on the quality of the sound. For me d&b audiotechnik was a logical choice.”

d&b audiotechnik

Church Sound: Locating Your Loudspeakers & Related Issues

The decision on the location of your sanctuary main and monitor loudspeakers will have a decided impact on the success of your presentation.

A single source of sound is best for the spoken word, whenever possible.

In a perfect world, as it relates to audio systems for worship, it’s best practice to place the sanctuary main loudspeakers in a central cluster above the front edge of the chancel riser.

The loudspeaker (or loudspeakers) are selected to provide pattern coverage over the entire seating area without putting acoustic energy on the walls, floor or ceiling.

When we put sound on people, it is largely absorbed and only minimal reflections continue elsewhere in their journey about the room.

When the pattern coverage is poorly designed, putting acoustic energy on highly reflective surfaces such as walls, floors and ceilings, the reflected sound can pass the listener’s ears several times, creating a lack of enunciation and speech intelligibility.

A properly designed central cluster allows the sound to reach the listener only once, thereby creating the most concise possible listening situation.

In many sanctuaries, however, there are physical limitations such as low ceilings or tall crosses that require an alternate consideration.

What if we can’t use a central cluster?

When forced to consider an alternate placement, the choice is usually left side and right side. It’s important to remember that sound will arrive at two different time intervals to people seated along the sides, and so we must attempt to select loudspeakers with a narrower coverage pattern.

The goal is to put sound on people at the left with the left speaker, and on people at the right with the right speaker, with as little acoustic energy crossing over the middle as possible.

How high should the loudspeakers be hung/flown?

Generally speaking, loudspeakers should be flown as high as possible (however, not to exceed 18-22 feet) in order to increase their distance from the front pew.

If the room has extremely low ceilings, we can arrive at a condition where people seated at the front are complaining that it is too loud, while the people at the rear are commenting that the sound needs to be turned up.

In such an instance, it’s advisable to turn the system down to a comfortable level and hang a second and even third set of loudspeakers perhaps every 25-30 feet as we grow in distance from the chancel.

Because sound traveling through the air takes time, the second set of loudspeakers will need to utilize a time delay so that the sound traveling from the chancel coincides perfectly with the sound emanating from the second set of loudspeakers.

A third set of loudspeakers will have to be delayed at yet a different setting to coincide with the sound emanating from the first two sets of loudspeakers.

In this manner, all sound source material reaches the ears of the listener at the exact same moment in time, regardless of how far back they are seated in the room, thereby maintaining speech intelligibility.

Though a sanctuary may have adequate ceiling height, if the room is very deep it’s still advisable to use multiple loudspeaker placements on delay lines.

Even if the chancel mains could be turned up loud enough to be heard at the back of the room, the sense of distance is audible (due to wall and ceiling reflections) and intelligibility is again adversely affected.

How can we minimize the possibility of feedback?

Despite the general public’s degree of sophistication in regards to quality audio, it’s not commonly understood that microphones need to be out of the live sound field whenever possible in order to minimize the possibility of feedback and annoying lingering overtones.

In other words, keep loudspeaker enclosures in front of the mics, not behind them. Of course, almost all pastors wear wireless mics, and many like to move about the room while speaking. A good church sound operator will be able to provide equalization so this may be done.

Attempt to keep monitor sound confined to the chancel riser.

Monitor loudspeakers are a wonderful benefit for the performers using them, but they can have a deleterious effect on the sanctuary sound.

If the monitors are positioned so that the monitor mix bounces off the back of the chancel and reflects back out to the congregation, it’s now combining at a different time interval with the sanctuary main mix and we have now adversely affected the speech intelligibility we had been striving so hard to create out front.

How loud should the monitors be?

Monitors should be just loud enough to keep the performers comfortable. If the monitors are too loud in relationship to the sanctuary main loudspeakers, no amount of positioning will help maintain clarity in the general seating area.

Since many praise band players are now middle-aged veterans of once-youthful rock bands, gently remind them that the purpose of the monitor line is to lend support and enunciation so that they may execute the material more perfectly.

If the monitors are intended to provide a studio-perfect mix of all instruments and voices for the listening enjoyment of the players, then you will need to be blessed with highly experienced and adequately funded audio technicians. Many larger churches in metropolitan areas are able to create this benefit for the praise musicians.

Jon Baumgartner is a veteran system designer for Sound Solutions in Eastern Iowa, a pro audio engineering/contracting division of West Music Company.