The annual Rathausmarkt Open Air in Hamburg, Germany, which heralds the new concert season of the Philharmonic State Orchestra under the baton of conductor Kent Nagano, was supported by a main sound reinforcement system headed by Alcons Audio pro-ribbon loudspeakers in a design by Uwe Biesgen of Creativsound (Berlin), with components provided by Event-Net GmbH (Halle).
In contrast to the previous event in 2019, where larger Alcons double 14-inch LR28 arrays were the choice, this time the sound team opted for the somewhat more compact Alcons double 12-inch LR24 arrays were deployed as mains. In total, Event-Net supplied 32 LR24 modules (divided into left-right arrays of 16 modules as well as 14 LR18 elements for center coverage and LR7 compact arrays handling nearfill. A bass array consisting of 22 Alcons BC543 triple 18-inch cardioid subwoofers completed the audience sound system.
For monitoring on stage, Biesgen, who also served as the system engineer, called for a dozen LR7s (four positions of three each) joined by four VR8 modules and four QRP20/90 columns, with six more LR7s available as spares. The system was driven by more than 30 Alcons Sentinel 10 amplified loudspeaker controllers at three positions, while digital signal distribution and amplifier control was handled by a Riedel RockNet network.
Because a significantly larger audience was expected at this year’s edition of the event, Biesgen also specified a left-center-right delay line to run right behind the front of house position, each loudspeaker set consisting of four QR24/80s and two QR24/110s working in conjunction with a trio Alcons BF121 direct-radiating subwoofers. Outfill was delivered by more QR24/80s and two BC543 subs. Audio power and processing was supplied by additional Sentinel 10s.
“The QR24 systems blended in very well, both acoustically and visually,” says Biesgen. “This is due to the extremely coherent dispersion behavior, which provided a discrete sound refreshment even over long distances, without disturbing the localization towards the stage. To ensure that the delay positions were not visually perceived as a ‘disturbing structure,’ we took advantage of the narrow design of the speakers and placed them right in front of the local lanterns.
“The system performance was very good and comparable to the result we had achieved in 2019 using the larger LR28. The artistic management, the musicians and the audience were all very satisfied with the sound experience.”
