The
Sage Gateshead — an iconic multi-arts building in the north-east of England,
which originally cost £70m to construct — this year celebrates its tenth year.
To
celebrate its landmark birthday the venue has upgraded the sound system in its
1700-capacity main Hall One with the installation of an RCF HDL 20-A line array
by local contractors (and long time RCF rental partner), Nitelites.
The
move follows a period of careful evaluation by the facility’s Head of Technical
Operations, Chris Durant and his team, during the many occasions the HDL20-A
has been flown on a temporary basis to support the house system.
Home to
Royal Northern Sinfonia, and host to a vast concert agenda that includes jazz,
folk, country and rock the original beam steering system had rarely kept pace
with the Sage’s promotional ambitions and so Nitelites found themselves
increasingly hiring in their RCF TT+ and HDL rigs.
Eventually
Nitelites’ MD, Jamie Moore proposed that a flown HDL 20-A be installed on a
permanent basis — both to save the Sage Gateshead hire costs and to enable the
system to be purpose tuned via a series of preset scenes accessed via a custom
panel.
Said
Nitelites co-director Andy Magee, “With
HDL we were confident we could get even coverage around the building, whether
for speech or classical. The system is so easy to deploy, quick to rig and fast
to wire.”
The PA
is designed to cover the ground floor, two balcony tiers and is split into 12
zones. Nitelites detailed 12 HDL20-A enclosures for each flank, rigged on a
flying frame which will take up to 16 elements.
The
rest of the complement comprises three HDL 20-A a side as portable ground stack
on custom dollies, atop a SUB 8004. A separate stack features three SUB 8006s
in a reverse cardioid pattern (one rear facing), with an HDL 10-A on top. Two
HDL 10-As are also used for under-balcony infill and four as front lip fills.
On the sides of the main hang for outfills are four discreet RCF TT08s.
Chris
Durant believes that Nitelites’ attention to detail in tuning the system has
enabled them to get an additional 30% from the system. “We’ve had pretty much every big system in here and our new in-house
RCF house rigs sounds better because temporary systems have to be set up so
quickly; this been tuned to within an inch of its life.”
He
presented Nitelites with a matrix containing different performance scenarios
for which gain structure presets were created. Via the DSP, Sage Gateshead can
turn zones on and off in the PA at will. “It’s far more efficient than changing
the angles of the boxes every time we needed a new configuration,” Durant says.
He
notes, “The great thing about the HDL
20-A is that it goes down to 55Hz so for jazz and classical there are no subs
at all. In fact the first time I heard it I thought our subs had been switched
in by mistake.”
At the
same time he highlights other advantages of HDL 20-A. “It’s also easy to groundstack and the position of the fly frame is
mirrored on the subs so it’s easy to interlock; it’s convection cooled so there
is no buzzing — which is vital in a critical room where a low noise floor is
required. It’s also very efficient energy wise, and we don’t need to run extra
power in.”
All of
which should future-proof performance requirements for the foreseeable future.
Summing up the Sage Gateshead installation, Chris Durant says, “We are now making engineers aware that they
can leave their kit on the truck.”
RCF’s Northern sales manager Mick Butler adds that the
system’s exposure to visiting sound engineers will be invaluable. “It really brings into focus the power of
RCF’s pro touring range,” he says.
