Since 2006, RH Consulting and RG Jones have provided Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, a 31,000-capacity sports destination that’s played host to some of sport’s most iconic matches, with numerous audio designs and installations, most recently implementing Genelec 4430A Smart IP loudspeakers in the facility’s The Long Room members-only dining/reception space.
For 130 years, The Long Room has been an important part of Lord’s. On match days, it welcomes members to their favorite sport while also providing the walkway for players coming out to the pitch.
The brief was for an enhanced entertainment system that could accommodate the events held in the space, which can quickly go from hosting grand lunches and dinners to jazz performances, small conferences and speeches.
“Spending a day in The Long Room is a cricket fan’s dream,” says Roland Hemming, project manager at RH Consulting. “Therefore, we needed a first-class solution that wasn’t going to compromise on quality, which led us to Genelec. Prior to the Genelec system, Lord’s was using a combination of in-house and temporary systems, which was very disruptive.”
“The Pavilion at Lord’s is a listed building so aesthetics were very important. We were also restricted on where we physically positioned the loudspeakers,” adds Richard Northwood, design consultant at RH Consulting. “It’s a really busy room, so the audio solution we installed had to ensure everyone could be heard.”
The system needs to play high-quality music and also has to serve as part of the evacuation system. It includes redundancy so that should part of the system fail, the rest carries on, with the fact that Smart IP loudspeakers being driven individually meeting that criteria.
The system uses 12 4430A Smart IP models that use PoE and are compatible with both Dante and open streaming standards such as AES67. They were supplied in a custom RAL9001 cream color.
“The Genelec Smart IP loudspeakers are sustainably made, flexible and can be customized in a wide range of colors,” Hemming states. “Another advantage of using this series is that the loudspeakers are run and controlled on a single CAT cable. We were able to cable the system from the basement, which meant that there was little disruption caused.”
The loudspeakers are controlled by Smart IP Manager software that targets specific audio installation problems, helping save the installation team time by ensuring that all of the loudspeakers are performing optimally.
RG Jones also installed six 7040A active subwoofers. The Lord’s Estates’ department extended the room’s radiator covers so that these are invisible. The sub’s onboard bass management technology enables it to filter low-frequency information from the main channels and take responsibility for handling it.
Additionally, room compensation controls also allow users to optimize the 7040A for any environment. All of this was connected into the existing site-wide DSP network. The new system can be controlled via a touchscreen on the wall, but The Long Room is also equipped with a couple of mobile mixing consoles that can be plugged in, providing added flexibility required for bigger events.
