Sage One, the primary auditorium at the Sage Gateshead concert hall that overlooks the River Tyne in northeast England, recently upgraded its main sound reinforcement system with RCF HDL 30-A line arrays joined by 10 SUB 9006-AS subwoofers, with all new inventory supplied by Ingram AV.
The new arrays offer a more option in replacing the Sage One’s previous HDL 20-A models, and in a project where there were several competive options, represent the venue’s long relationshiip with RCF UK sales manager Mick Butler.
Sage One technical manager Graham Orchard explains how a capital project to change the functionality of the auditorium’s seating came about and how it impacted the PA: “The original seating was never designed to be removed. We’d only ever done a standing event once, for the BBC 6 Music Festival in 2015. It was a major job, and it damaged the inserts they were screwed into. The aim of the capital project was to change the release mechanism so the seating could be easily removed and in less time.”
With experience of both the venue and HDL loudspeakers through his previous company, Andy Magee, now a member of the RCF Engineering Support Group, had already recorded numerous measurements for different scenarios (e.g., with the stage extended). He spent a week gathering data, with 24 reference microphones distributed round the hall, to help inform his advice on the project.
The new system includes dual hangs of 12 HDL 30-A enclosures deliver coverage from row F on the main floor up to balcony levels 2 and 3, while a ground stack of three further HDL 30-A and a single RCF SUB 9004-AS per side provide audience coverage in the first four rows. Four HDL 26-A across the front of the stage offer additional frontfill while two TT 10-A provide outfill coverage on the floor level and a further four TT 10-A perform the same task at the balcony levels.
The deployment of the subwoofers presented the biggest challenge. Initially, the team placed three SUB 9006-AS units per side in cardioid configuration, and that was later increased to four. However, the cardioid was subsequently removed because of the contours of the hall.
“The rejection we were getting from the cardioid wasn’t that significant,” Orchard says. “Ideally, we would have the subs under the stage in a linear pattern, but that was impossible since the stage is on a lift, and so the subs have to be ground stacked. They also have to be set wide off the stage, because of sightline issues.”
Two further SUB 9006-AS were added as utilities — they can be used to bolster the existing complement as necessary in the main auditorium, and they can also transported on dollies to another space. Magee also integrated proprietary RDNet control, with a control tablet also providing engineers access to trim and adjust the EQ of all zones via a custom BSS Soundweb platform. In addition, through the control panel there are now various settings for stage reduction, standard stage extension and full stage extension (affecting delays) that are mainly enabled through RDNet.
The final aspects of the project were budget compliance and visual continuity: “Having something that didn’t completely change the visual representation of the boxes in the hall was a key factor,” Orchard concludes. “Sage One is a shoebox configuration so with the footprint hanging in the air and on the stage, simply switching from HDL 20-A to HDL 30-A was a great benefit.”
