Designated as the country\’s official capital in 1997,
Astana is Kazakhstan\’s second largest city, and the world\’s second coldest
capital. Despite its less than balmy climes, Astana has experienced a boom in
development in recent years, with millions invested in parks, government
buildings, and cultural centers.
One of the most impressive of the city\’s newest
structures is Astana State Auditorium, a striking structure designed by
renowned architects Studio Nicoletti that has been labeled the \”Flower of
the Steppe\” for its petal-like walls that enclose an indoor plaza that is
home to restaurants, shops, exhibition halls, two cinemas, and a 3500 seat
auditorium that is one of the largest of its kind in the world.
The auditorium\’s interior is as dramatic as the building
itself. The room\’s unique fan shaped wood ceiling panels create a flexible
acoustic signature that can accommodate a wide variety of events, from
classical music to rock, pop, cinema, and spoken word. As Alessandro Baroni of
A&T Media explains, the project was not without its challenges.
\”The most important consideration was to achieve a
consistent sound coverage across the entire auditorium,\” says Baroni.
\”It\’s a very unique design, with multiple levels of seating and an upper
balcony that wraps around behind the stage area. The sound system needed to be
flexible to adapt to a wide range of performnce material and a wide range of
seating configurations.\”
The system comprises a main array of 16 Renkus-Heinz
PN102LR line array loudspeakers, along with a secondary array of five more
PN102LR boxes to cover the upper balcony behind the stage. A center cluster of
nine PN212 subwoofers provides ample low frequency reinforcement, and four ST9
cabinets cover lateral fill. The very front rows are covered by seven SGGX42
boxes mounted on the lip of the stage. For even more versatility, the main
array can be hoisted up into the ceiling when not in use, and a second complete
system comprising 12 IC Live ICL-R digitally steered column arrays on custom
brackets can be put into play.
\”The Renkus-Heinz systems were a good choice for
this project, because the beam steering and built in DSP enabled us to
configure the system to cover all the seating, at multiple levels and
locations,\” Baroni concludes.
A pair of Yamaha M7CL-48 consoles are installed at Front
of House and stageside Monitor positions. And four Symetrix Solus 8 units
handle system DSP. Everything is connected via a network of Ethersound,
RHAON, and CobraNet.
Video is equally versatile, implementing a dual stack of
two Christie Roadie HD+30K DLP projectors for an exceptionally brilliant and
high definition picture. \”We ran into several challenges,\” Baroni
reports. \”We had too much heat buildup in the rack with two projectors, so
we had to work out how to insulate the rack to keep it cool and keep the fan
noise down. And we had to design a mounting system that was steady enough to
hold the machines so the two images would stay perfectly aligned,
pixel-by-pixel, to not lose image quality and definition.\” Four Sony
BRC3000 HD cams cover the room, with a Panasonic AV-hs400 video console at the
helm. There\’s even an interpretation system that can provide subtitles in eight
different languages.
Not surprisingly, the project also included some
logistical challenges. \”Of course, it was a challenge to be working in
Astana, 6000 km (3700 miles) away from our headquarters in Italy,\” says
Baroni. \”And the winter climate was very severe. And with such a big
project, the scheduling and coordinating of different phases and crews is
always a bit difficult. But we worked it all out in the end, and the result is
nothing short of fantastic.\”
