Located at the heart of the metro area and home to the city’s best concerts – both classical and contemporary – as well as theatrical productions and other live performances, the Toronto Centre for the Arts is a cultural jewel not just of Toronto, but of North America and the world.
Built in 1993, the Centre’s George Weston Recital Hall seats 1,000 and is proclaimed by many to have the best acoustics of any recital hall in Canada.
Nevertheless, many contemporary performances in the hall require, by their very nature, a sound reinforcement system.
The centre recently replaced the deteriorating system that was put in place when the hall was built, with a new one based on an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC line array.
The recital hall’s head technician, Anton Nalepka, expected the system’s musical fidelity, given L-Acoustics reputation, but he was pleasantly surprised by the even coverage delivered by the dV-DOSC system.
“The old system never had the coverage we had hoped to have,” said Nalepka. “But beyond that, the boxes and processors were showing their age.”
There was analog noise in the system from the amps, which had been great in their time, and the DSPs were starting to inject digital noise as well.”
Given the recital hall’s “shoebox” shape, Nalepka and all of his sound-savvy associates thought that a point source system was the way to go.
The PA system was designed using the extensive L-Acoustics product line catalogue. The dV-DOSC system combined with the KIVA system and SB28 subwoofer system were put in place to achieve seamless coverage front-to-back and left-to-right.
“The use of Soundvision, proprietary 3D modeling and SPL/Mapping software” said Vaino Gennaro, business director for Sennheiser Canada “gave us a clear indication of the system configuration.”
“The Soundvision software also validated that the performance of the L-Acoustics system was within the set parameters of the venue.”
Toronto-established A/V company PA Plus Sales installed the new system for the centre. It consists of a center array composed of nine dV-DOSC HF/MF sections. Separate left and right clusters convey stereo imaging information for the orchestra and balcony levels. Each consists of four L-Acoustics KIVA line source speakers facing downward for orchestra coverage and four KIVA line source speakers facing slightly upward for balcony coverage.
For the seats that are slightly behind the stage, four KIVAs provide fill, with two pointing sideways and two pointing upstage.
Two L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers deliver an authoritative low-end. The system is powered by L-Acoustics LA8 and LA4 amplified controllers. L-Acoustics proprietary LA Network Manager software is managing the systems through unique feature such as Contour EQ and Array Morphing.
Nalepka described that the L-Acoustics system installed at the Toronto Centre for the Arts had ample power and pleasing musical fidelity. “Like so many other specs, the dV-DOSC promised it would cover the room,” he remarked.
“And it really did! I was at the demo together with some of the other guys from the union that run sound in the hall. We were stunned, literally.”
“I had no idea something called a ‘line array’ could sound so good and provide coverage that was so even. There’s truth in those specs! The dV-DOSC really does what it says it will do.”
