Hosting domestic and international artistic events since 1991, the Beijing Poly Theatre is a main hub in China for cultural arts exchange, and it now has a new sound reinforcement system with Harman’s Soundcraft consoles, Crown Audio amplifiers and BSS signal processors.
Harman distributor ACE supplied the components for the auditorium, which seats 1,428 and offers top audio-visual equipment to cater to the various needs of international acts and artists, including operas, symphonic concerts, ballets, musicals and many others.
Soundcraft Vi6 and Vi4 digital consoles were installed in the control room, where they share a Stagebox so the signals can be routed into both consoles. The Vi6 is the main console, utilized for front of house mixing and control, while the Vi4 serves as a backup and can also be configured for monitors.
“The two Soundcraft consoles form a complete mixing system that is extremely versatile,” explains Lina Han, vice president of engineering at ACE. “They have added a huge amount of digital mixing capacity to the control room, and by just switching a few cables around, they can be configured for any purpose.”
The system is powered with Crown Audio Macro-Tech i Series amplifiers and supported with BSS BLU-160 signal processors, which offer configurable signal processing at a significant bandwidth.
“By converting the existing analog infrastructure into newer digital systems, we have transformed the control room of the theater,” Han adds. “The biggest challenge for this project is that we only had 15 business days until completion, which meant that we pre-configured all the equipment in-house. The customer was very satisfied, as we provided reliable maintenance and support during the integration process.”