The Cyprian Norwid Theatre in Jelenia Góra, Poland, built in 1904 to serve as an artistic hub for a city and the site of thousands of events that include plays, concerts, educational lectures, religious cermonies and other ceremonies, was recently outfitted with a new sound reinforcement system incorporating digitally steerable loudspeakers from Renkus-Heinz.
The venue’s main room, which seats 540, retains its original design, but that aspect – two balconies and a number of uniquely placed private box seats – also provided a challenge with live sound over the years. Numerous reflective surfaces made audio clarity and quality subpar in some locations inside the theatre.
Polish integration and distribution firm M.Ostrowski sp.j handled the project, seeking to both improve coverage and intelligibility. “To meet the requirements of the theatre we chose a Renkus-Heinz system,” states Dominik Wilczynski, audio engineer at M.Ostrowski sp.j. “The great advantage of using Renkus-Heinz is the ability to create digitally steerable beams and keep the loudspeakers mounted flat on the wall. By using software to tailor an asymmetrical beam and steer it towards the listeners only, we limit unwanted reflections. This improves direct sound and intelligibility.”
The theatre utilizes four ICLive X steerable array modules on the ground floor – with two-unit tall ICLX arrays on each side of the stage – and two ICLive X modules on the first balcony level. Also included are four ICLive X 118S subwoofers on the main floor, which are portable units that allow for scalability in sound depending on the type of performance.
“During the implementation we had an unexpected change in the loudspeaker system design, where the delay boxes for the second balcony had to be removed,” concludes Wilczynski. “But with Renkus-Heinz’ digital beam steering we were able to program multiple beams so they are directed precisely where we need the coverage. It is a huge benefit that the technology is so flexible, and that it addresses real problems we see in the field.”
