hetpaleis, a prominent performing arts center nestled in the heart of Antwerp, Belgium, prides itself on providing diverse and high-quality arts experiences for all ages with a focus on young audiences. Stimulating children in their experiences as spectators, participants and artists, hetpaleis makes high-quality productions accessible to a large, urban and diverse audience. With a focus on community building, the venue supports a variety of artists in their development, providing a national and international reach.
To enhance its offering to all, hetpaleis upgraded its audio infrastructure with L-ISA immersive audio by L-Acoustics, marking the first L-ISA installation in Flanders. When considering upgrading the theatre’s sound, hetpaleis reached out to Brussels-based L-Acoustics Certified Partner XLR, building on their successful collaborations on previous projects.
Bob Hermans, sound designer/engineer at hepaleis adds, “We immediately recognized the need to explore immersive, object-based mixing for our future sound system. L-Acoustics emerged as the optimal solution, meeting our specific criteria for immersive audio while remaining within budget.”
The new system needed to be at least 180-degree immersive, object-based, and ideally expandable to 360 degrees in the future. It also had to be fully compatible with both LR and LCR mixing to meet existing requirements and perfectly suited to the venue’s aural and acoustic needs.
hetpaleis Theatre’s L-ISA Processor and LA7.16i amplified controllers. Photo courtesy: OLEX Communications/L-Acoustics.
XLR accompanied the theatre’s audio team to L-Acoustics headquarters in Marcoussis where they decided to implement L-ISA technology after a firsthand demo of the immersive capabilities of L-ISA.
The biggest challenge was the deployment of the L-ISA configuration because of the limited clearance due to acoustic panels and sharing the tight space with the lighting department. To utilize the limited height in the most efficient way possible, holes were drilled in the acoustic panels to allow steel wires to connect to each array individually; instead of rigging them all to one lateral truss, which would have taken up valuable space. This allowed for five hangs of three A10, without disrupting sightlines from the top rows of the balcony. At the same time, it also maintained impressive SPL, throw and vertical coverage.
The front of the stage is curved outwards. This means that the coverage of the scene system is challenged at the outer seats of the first rows. With nine 5XT spatial front-fills, the immersive element of the mix is perfectly represented for those audience members that don’t receive full coverage from the scene system. One X8 per side on the proscenium helps to keep coverage 100% when a performance does not allow for front-fills, says L-Acoustics.
A very impressive low end is delivered by a horizontal array of four KS21i flown behind the sound system. This then provides perfect coverage straight up to the balcony. According to L-Acoustics, cardioid mode limits rear rejection, keeping the performers on stage comfortable.
The entire system is fed by two LA7.16i amplified controllers which receive signal input via redundant Milan-AVB from the L-ISA Processor II. The combination of A10 clusters and KS21 subs, with the LA7.16i amps providing each cabinet with its own amplifier channel offered a perfect solution for their budget.
Hermans adds, “The ability to place objects, and for everyone in the room to actually experience that placement is just phenomenal. To me, the difference with conventional dual mono LR and LCR systems is very significant. We recently experimented with a Zactrack system that tracks actors’ positions on stage, and the L-ISA Processor automatically translates these positions to the system’s respective speakers, resulting in a very realistic listening experience. We hope to do this more often in the future.”
“The feedback from the theatre’s team has been overwhelmingly positive. They are extremely satisfied with the power and distribution of the audio, and they are pleased with the non-intrusive installation that delivers such an immersive sonic experience,” comments Nico Devroe, area sales manager at XLR.
Creating an L-ISA immersive audio experience at hetpaleis represents a significant advancement in audio technology, says L-Acoustics. With this installation, it thus promises an unparalleled auditory journey for audiences and sets a new standard for immersive sound in performing arts venues, says the provider.
