The University of Limerick is one of Ireland’s most
renowned educational establishments and enjoys a high reputation throughout
Europe. Founded in 1972, it offers its 11,000 students an ideal learning
environment. As well as numerous lecture halls and seminar rooms, the
facilities include a 1,000-seater auditorium, the University Concert Hall,
which caters to a wide variety of needs. During the day, it is used for
lectures, but in the evening it serves as a concert hall offering a diverse
programme, with rock bands occupying the stage one day and classical orchestras
and choirs the next, followed in time by a mix of folk musicians, jazzmen and
chamber ensembles. Such a wide spectrum places considerable demands on the
sound reinforcement system – demands that the previous system was unable to
meet. Something altogether more flexible was required, which is why those
responsible decided in advance of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary
of the university’s founding, to invest in a completely new sound reinforcement
system.
The tendor for the installation was won by Murt Whelan
Sound Ltd, a company based in Limerick that had handled a number of musical
productions at the university in the past and was known for its expertise and
dependability. Here though, not only the firm’s reputation but also the detail
of the sound design concept it proposed impressed the decision makers. The key
components of this solution were XLD elements from Electro-Voice’s XLVC line
array system, which are not only compact but also versatile and recognised for
the quality of their reproduction.
“The bar was set very high here,” recalls
Whelan. “They wanted even coverage throughout the entire hall, the highest
possible degree of intelligibility – essential in view of its daytime duties as
a lecture hall – and plenty of power and headroom for concerts in the evening.
All that, and first class sound quality at all times!”?To achieve
minimum reverberation, the designers opted for an unusual solution: a mono hang
flown above the stage, composed of XLD elements. For this, nine Electro-Voice
XLD281 three-way elements were flown in a central array, flanked by
Electro-Voice XCS312 cardioid subwoofers. “Our wide range of experience in the
rental sector strongly influenced these decisions,” says Whelan – as it did
also when it came to the foldback on stage”.
The Electro-Voice loudspeakers in the University Concert
Hall provide even coverage of the main seating area with plenty of sound
pressure in the lower frequency range. There are two ground stacks flanking the
stage comprising in each case four XLD elements and an Xsub – the latter a
guarantor of power and punch in the bass frequencies. FRi-2082 two-way
loudspeakers have been used for lip fills. For the hard-to-cover balcony area,
Murt Whelan opted for two TS400 vertical array loudspeakers from DYNACORD as
well as four EVF-1152S systems. These front-loaded loudspeakers represent a
comfortable solution to a diverse range of installation tasks, recognised for
their combination of high sound pressure levels with low distortion.
The
installation was rounded off by four Electro-Voice ZX1 loudspeakers, five
DYNACORD CXM 15 monitors and two Electro-Voice ZXA1 boxes in the control room.
The
system is driven by fifteen Electro-Voice CPS 2.12 amplifiers plus three
Electro-Voice PA2250T units for the 100-volt lines. It is governed by two
NetMax N8000 digital matrix controllers from Electro-Voice configured using
IRIS-Net software. “The custom-configured network here makes it easy to switch
between different input sources,” says Whelan. “Whether from the control room or
the front-of-house position, you can load any of a variety of set-ups.” You
don’t even have to be a technician to use the system; ordinary users quickly
find their way around it, “and this, too, is important,” adds Whelan, “as the
hall is in use around the clock.”
