Hamer Hall renewed

Last year in January, I had the privilege to visit Hamer Hall as it closed its door for renovations. I blogged about it here. Once again, I was able to do a technical tour of the newly refurbished Hamer Hall a few weeks ago. Here's my simple review of the technicals....

While the redevelopment team has maintained many of the heritage features, including the gold finishes in the ceiling, there was massive improvement to the facility in terms of opening up of spaces and creation of new zones for better people flow and management.

Some of the heritage elements

The most obvious improvement was the creation of a grid over stage, called the 'technical zone'. Previously, technicians had to crawl into the roofspace of this concert hall to hang hoists, now a full height grid with beam trolleys allow for ease of use and maintenance.

View from house looking up to the technical zone

View of the technical grid

The other change was the adjustable canopy over stage that has the ability to fold itself and fly up into the grid at a press of a button. This canopy allow for a change of heights and angles for different programmes. Unfortunately, I was too excited looking at all of the other technical embellishments, I did not manage to get a shot of this. There is a video by Robert Shook introducing the system here.

Lighting bars down for maintenance

Varilite VLX, ETC Lustre, Seachanger fixtures on a stage bar

Technically, it is probably the most advanced space in the Southern hemisphere in terms of lighting, sound and staging. LED fixtures were used for the house lighting, as were some of the moving lights and stage washes. A equally impressive Meyer rig was featured throughout the hall with Milo and Mica line arrays performing front of house duties. A notable feature is the main system is able to glide forwards and backwards in relation to the stage position.

The house LED lighting is spectacular

I'm really looking forward to attending performances in this space - both contemporary and classical. Sightlines and acoustics have improved tremendously; the space feels a lot more open and friendlier. It's a real thrill to see refurbishments of this quality.

Massenburg on video

Legendary sound engineer and the man generally credited as the inventor of the parametric equaliser, George Massenburg has posted a series of introductory videos on some of the history and use of GML products.

He talks about the history of the parametric EQ and also does a brief demo on how he uses it on a piano to make it sit better with the vocal on a track. In another clip, he talks about the dynamic range controller and its difference from a regular compressor limiter. Great stuff from the man.

You can catch the videos here.

Designing spaces that engage

Auditoria, in general, were designed to with the primary purpose of communicating a message from the stage to the audience.

In a contemporary worship environment, there is a higher level of engagement between 'stage' and 'audience'. Pastors and worship leaders connect and communicate with the congregation expecting a high level of intimacy and engagement with them, as part of the worship process that brings the entire church closer to God.

Designing spaces that engage both people on stage and in the auditorium require careful planning and collaboration with the design team in the areas of acoustics, hall shaping, sightline, technical, stage and interior design. Each of these factors work together to create a seamless space where a space is able to engage its users to communicate, connect and respond accordingly to different moments in a worship service.

Acoustics :
There is a requirement for strong early reflections generated within the congregation area. This is primarily different from conventional auditoria design when the stage is acoustically reflected into the audience. Strong early reflections within the congregation creates a sense of 'ensemble' when singing and aids in the worship experience by providing a sense of 'envelopment' for each worshipper.

Hall shaping :
Sightline and seating design is important in providing a sense of intimacy and connection both within the congregation and stage areas. It is also important to consider easy access from the balcony to the main floor in order to bring about inclusiveness to multi level halls.

Thrust stages bring the speaker closer to the congregation, improving sightlines and intimacy.

Technical systems :
Technology plays a crucial part in creating an atmosphere that is conducive to the worship experience. Audio systems that are well designed and localised provide audio cues to the congregation. Monitoring systems have improved dramatically over the last decade, allowing musicians and singers to have better control of their mixes.

Environmental projection in addition to image magnification and lyrics to ensure that visual clarity and cues, aiding congregational participation. Multi camera mixing and video servers with appropriate content provide imaging that complement to the worship team's direction and theme.

Intelligent lighting design help to increase intimacy in the auditorium and create an atmosphere that encourage the congregation to focus on worship process.

In order for a worship space to be successful, an integrated design approach, where needs and direction are clearly defined to the consulting team, is crucial early in the design process. The acoustical and technical consultant should be able to provide the necessary advice to the rest of the design team for successful implementation of materials, infrastructure and equipment during the build.

Integrate Sydney

While smaller than most trade shows in Asia, the Integrate Expo in Sydney provided a glimpse of the AV offerings that Australian distributors had to offer. Digital technology continues to march forward with digital consoles, LED lighting and interactive video walls featuring heavily in the show.

A few things did catch my eye - Riedel Performer intercom system offer both a complete digital intercom infrastructure with the ability for endusers to upgrade via their current analog type systems. Whilst the ability to interface with various systems into big master system is not a new concept, the ability to link various systems via AES digital interface allows for some interesting transport and communications concepts that I'm keen to explore for some of my future projects.

I managed to spot a DeSisti LED fresnel - looking very much like an ordinary fresnel, but with sporting a high density LED panel, the fresnel consumes around 130 watts and has the output close to a 600 watt incandescent fresnel. It does not do colour changing like the Selecon PL3 but rather acts very much like a conventional fresnel, with very much reduced heat and no colour fringing. While light output and price continue to be the main issues, I would expect this issues to be sorted in the coming years with higher output offerings at much reduced pricing.

I found a quiet fan solution for the noisy fans that reside in equipment racks. Middle Atlantic Products have the UQFP ultra quiet fan series that have sensors that regulate the fan speed in the rack. There are various physical configurations and monitoring options available for these fans, including the currently in-vogue blue glowing LEDs.