www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • April 2010 • 75

first-floor lobby, a three-story spacewith limestone floors, seats 200 diners.A glass room at the second lobby levelis also available for meetings and pri-vate entertaining.

“Koerner Hall has all the featuresof much larger facilities, but scaleddown,” says Martin Van Dijk, seniordesigner with EngineeringHarmonics, the project’s audio-visualconsultant. “It’s a gorgeous hall thatcan accommodate a lot of differentprogramming, due to its variableacoustics. It has a really great intima-cy and the sonic character to goalong with it. Just to be in a hall likethat is fantastic.”

Programming for the inauguralseason reads like a Who’s Who ofclassical, world music, and jazzartists: The Emerson String Quartet,pianist Anton Kuerti, the TorontoMendelssohn Choir, Ravi Shankar andhis daughter Anoushka, Chick Corea,Stanley Clarke, and Bela Fleck areamong the dozens of headliners fea-tured this year.

Koerner Hall achieved the highest

possible acoustic rating—N1—render-ing it ideal for the finest acoustical per-formances of classical music, jazz, andworld music, but the addition of vari-able acoustics by the acoustician BobEssert, of Sound Space Design,makes it equally well-suited to ampli-fied music, lectures, and film presenta-tions. The hall’s design is based on theclassical European shoebox format,and features two balcony tiers abovethe main orchestra level, and a thirdtechnical balcony, finished to provideoptimal sightlines for live televisedbroadcasts of performances.

The hall’s most visually strikingfeature is an acoustically transparentveil of twisting oak “strings” that formthe backdrop for the chorus at thefirst balcony level, then hover over thestage below the fixed acousticcanopy and extend into and over thehall at the technical balcony level. Thehall’s floors, as well as the balconyseats and fronts, are also finished innatural oak, which contrasts with theundulating black plaster panels thatline the hall.

The voice-lift system“Concert halls need public addresssystems that are separate from anymusic reinforcement systems they mayneed,” says Philip Giddings, presidentof Engineering Harmonics. “Music sys-tems tend to be large and fairly obtru-sive, and, if they’re hung in the middleof a beautifully finished concert hall,they can be an eyesore. For announce-ments prior to or during a recital, or forlectures, you need something smallerand visually unobtrusive.”

To this end, EngineeringHarmonics worked with Renkus-Heinz to design a unique, and almostinvisible, retractable “voice stick,”comprised of three off-white R-HIC16 ICONYX digitally steerable arraysystems, just a little over 6' high andarranged back-to-back in a circle120° apart, sandwiched between two¼''-thick aluminum discs, 18'' indiameter and flown over the stage ona three-point hang from the top of thetop plate. (Readers may recall that apreliminary test of this system, carriedout in Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall,

74 • April 2010 • Lighting&Sound America

TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO

The new Michael and Sonja KoernerHall at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory ofMusic (RCM), a beautiful and superb-sounding venue that opened lastSeptember, features an innovativeintegration of its voice-lift and perform-ance sound systems for use in rein-forced applications where provision ofcomplete coverage to every seat mightotherwise be more costly or morecomplex to achieve.

The 1,135-seat concert hall is thejewel of the new TELUS Centre forPerformance and Learning at theRoyal Conservatory of Music, con-structed over three years at a cost ofsome $110 million. While the conser-vatory’s mandate is centered firmly onteaching—more than 500,000Canadians take part in RCM pro-grams, exams, and public school ini-tiatives in over 300 communities

across the country—the hall was builtwith an awareness of the power ofperformance to inspire and motivatemusic students.

Koerner Hall was also built to be anexciting new landmark on Toronto’scultural map, not unlike Lincoln Centerin New York with its constituent con-servatory, The Juilliard School.

Situated in the heart of the city,steps away from the newly renovatedRoyal Ontario Museum, Koerner Hall ismuch larger than most school recitalhalls, yet is only half the size of a typi-cal metropolitan concert hall.According to the project architect,KPMB, the venue “signals the expand-ed role of the RCM as a cultural desti-nation for public enjoyment. With itsdistinctive interior and world-caliberacoustics, Koerner Hall will create arecognizable icon for the RCM, locallyand internationally.”

Indeed, Telus Centre’s facilitiesextend well beyond those normallyassociated with educational institu-tions: It includes three tiers of glass-fronted lobbies, spacious back-of-house areas for performers, a café atthe ground-floor level, and a uniquecollection of antique musical instru-ments donated by Michael Koerner.(Koerner, a venture capitalist, is a lead-ing arts donor; he also helped to startthe Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.)Each lobby level offers magnificentviews of the University of Toronto, themuseum, and the city, and is equippedwith a bar and ample room to host avariety of functions related to concerts,conferences, and special events. The

The IntegratedSound SystemBy: Alan Hardiman

Combining voice-lift and performance sound functionsat Toronto’s Koerner Hall

Thanks to Renkus-Heinz’s BeamWare software, this drawing shows the sound radiation patterns from the hanging Iconyx voice stick(upper unit) and one of the two Iconyx arrays mounted in the front wall to the left of the stage.

Photo:Tom

Arban

Drawing:CourtesyofBillCoons

Copyright Lighting&Sound America April 2010 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • April 2010 • 77

VT4887ADP powered compact bi-amplified loudspeakers, and a pair ofVT4881ADP powered subwoofers.

For most reinforced applications,however, the voice-lift system can beintegrated with the flown performancesound system to provide completecoverage of the orchestra level and theseating in the chorus levels above thesides and rear of the stage.

Integrating thetwo systemsWhen both systems are deployed, thevoice stick hangs mere inches behindthe center cluster, and this is wherethe design gets really interesting.“Rhaon allows for the front-firing IC16in the voice stick to be switched off;otherwise, it would fire right into theback of the center performance clus-ter, explains Bill Coons, director ofContact Distribution, Inc., supplier ofthe Renkus-Heinz equipment toKoerner Hall.

“This leaves the other two IC16s

that aim at 120° and 240° to providecoverage for those areas to the sidesand rear that the performance soundcluster does not address,” he says.

The center cluster is essentiallyomnidirectional at low and low-midfrequencies, so those parts of thespectrum wrap around to the sidesand rear somewhat, and integrate withthe mid and high frequencies from thetwo rear-side units in the voice stick.

“This alleviates the need to mount arear-firing unit to the back of the cen-ter performance cluster that wouldhave compromised the riggings’straightforward design and the abilityto retract the cluster into the ceiling,”says Coons. “Engineering Harmonicsconsistently thinks outside the box tomaximize a design’s flexibility andbudget allocation, and this design is afirst, to their credit.

“The intimacy of the seats in thechorus is well-served by Iconyx’s near-audiophile quality,” he adds.“Furthermore, the IC16s at stage left

and right can achieve significant per-formance levels suitable for somethinglike a jazz sextet when augmented bya single performance system sub-woofer on each side. An IC16 candeliver 99dB SPL at 100'.”

“The IC16s don’t really have tothrow far, so it all works reasonablywell,” says Van Dijk. “If it’s particularlyloud on stage, then you might find thatthere’s not as much power as youmight want, but that was a designdecision that was taken in the contextof some of the compromises that weremade. But now that word is out abouthow good it sounds, and Koerner Hallhas become recognized for its qualityand uniqueness, everybody wants tobook it, including acts with heavilyamplified, full-monitor-rig shows. Thatwasn’t its original purpose, but it’s thesame for any venue: If you build it andit’s great, they will come!”

“The voice-stick is an innovativeand visually elegant solution for anyroom that does not have a prosceni-

76 • April 2010 • Lighting&Sound America

TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO

was first reported in the August 2007issue of LSA.)

The voice stick is augmented bytwo additional IC16 arrays, camou-flaged behind acoustically transparentfabric in the front walls on either sideof the stage.

Each IC16 is comprised of two IC8enclosures, one mounted on top ofthe other, to provide sixteen 4'' driv-ers on each of the three sides of thevoice-stick. The Iconyx system isunique in that each of the 16 discretedrivers in each array receives an indi-vidually filtered and delayed signal,enabling the array to produce up toeight independently specified verticalbeams and steering angles up to±30°. Because each IC16 in the voicestick can be configured to producemultiple beams, an upper beam canbe aimed to provide coverage for thechoir-level seating, while a lowerbeam can be programmed to coverthe lower seating levels.

In the voice stick’s front-firing IC16,the upper beam radiates directly for-ward at 0°, within a vertical coverageangle of 10º (±5º up and down), andthe lower beam radiates downward at-8º within a vertical coverage angle of20º. This provides coverage for bothfirst- and second-balcony seating.

In each of the two IC16s in thevoice stick that are aimed at the back

and sides of the hall, the upper beam’sradiation pattern is aimed slightlyupward at +3.7º, within a vertical cov-erage angle of 15º to cover the upperlevel seating; the lower beam radiatesdownward at -12º, again within a cov-erage angle of 20º vertically, to providecoverage for the seats in the choir atthe first balcony level.

In each of the two IC16s mountedin the front wall at either side of thestage, the upper beam radiates everso slightly downward at -1.5º, within avertical angle of 10º to provide cover-age for the orchestra and parterreseating; the lower beam is aimeddownward at -14º, within a verticalcoverage angle of 20º, to provide frontfill. (See page 75 for a graphic repre-sentation of the data.)

BeamWare control software com-municates with the loudspeakers viaRHAON (Renkus-Heinz AudioOperations Network) to permit adjust-ment of coverage, as well as theloudspeakers’ apparent acoustic cen-ters, without physically moving thearray itself, in order to improve local-ization of the sound source. Powercables and the Rhaon control cableare threaded up through the center ofthe voice stick behind the threeIconyx columns.

“With the voice-lift system, we aretrying to provide intelligibility, notsound reinforcement,” Van Dijk says.“In a reinforcement situation, you wantthe loudspeaker to perform and tohave the directivity to project soundenergy exactly where the people aresitting. You are not really working withthe acoustics of the room—in fact,most of the time the acoustics of theroom detract from amplified music.With a voice-lift system, on the otherhand, you are most definitely workingwith the acoustics of the room. It’s areal challenge for a loudspeakerdesigner to find that compromise. Inmy experience, you can’t achieve thatwith solely one speaker system. I’vebeen designing with dual types of sys-tems over the past several years. Yes,there is a cost, but the proof is in theend result.

“When you’re listening to a solo

voice and the room is acoustically livewith all the curtains retracted, thesound is lifted from the stage andbrought wonderfully out into thehouse,” he continues. “Because thevoice stick is located directly over thecenter of the stage, it works very wellwith the acoustics of the room, with allthe reflections that lift the voice off thestage and make it sound good. The liftand apparent image blend seamlessly;there is no cognitive dissonance dueto audio not localizing with the per-former visually. If I had used a moreconventional array, it would have beendifficult, if not impossible, to get thatlift without hearing it as a point source,with an accompanying tonal shift aris-ing from the loudspeaker itself impart-ing its own character to the sound, byvirtue of its geometry and size.”

The sound-reinforcementsystemThe sound-reinforcement system foramplified performances consists of asingle retractable center line-arraycomprising eight JBL VERTECVT4887A compact bi-amplified three-way loudspeaker systems, augmentedby two VerTec VT4881A subwoofershung in the canopy.

The VerTec center cluster covers aportion of the orchestra level all theway up to the top balcony. Coveragefor the front of the orchestra is provid-ed by seven Renkus-Heinz SGX41loudspeakers concealed in the stagelip, or, alternatively, eight SGX41s inthe lip of the pit lift when that isdeployed. The SGX41 loudspeakerwas selected because it uses thesame coaxial transducer as the IconyxIC16, and is therefore an appropriatematch to the main system.

Two Renkus-Heinz SGX121s,mounted in the catwalk, providedelayed over-balcony fill, as do a pairof Tannoy CMS401DCe loudspeakersat the sides of the parterre level. Allpassive loudspeakers are powered byCrown IC series amplifiers.

For occasional use in very demand-ing applications, additional loudspeak-er systems can be rolled onto stageleft and right, each consisting of four

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The voice stick, as seen from the rear ofthe stage.

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specified a Yamaha M7CL, one of themost commonly encountered digitalconsoles,” says Van Dijk. “Due to itsprice-performance design, it doesn’toffer all the bells and whistles thattouring professionals might want touse. Granted, many of these peoplewill bring in their own console, but,from a facilities standpoint, the clientwanted something with improvedmicrophone preamplifier performance.The Si3 was born of the Studer Vistaseries consoles, and you definitelyhear that sound quality. The YamahaM7CL offers a fantastic feature set,but it’s more about functionality than itis about sonic quality, and is offered ata correspondingly lower price.”

A further requirement was the capa-bility of recording in-house recitals andevents for practice and review, as wellas archiving. Two Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun microphones suspendedfrom the catwalk provide a programsound feed, which is split into a USBmicrophone preamplifier connected to

a dedicated MusicXPC computer inthe sound control room for recordingto hard drive immediately. Van Dijksays “I love the XPCs because they’requiet; you can put them in the roomwith you and they work.”

A broadcast-quality Hitachi DK-H32camera feeds an HD signal via HDmodulators to flat panel displaysdeployed in the lobbies and back ofhouse, and to a low-noise Dell PC,which is fitted with an Extron HDSDI-ACR 100 video capture card and sim-ple recording software for archiving.This setup permits capture of a high-quality stereo audio and video feed ofa recital or concert, which can beburned to DVD. “The HD camera pro-vides an impressive broadcast qualityimage. Digital signage content willaugment the video for display on theflat panels at some point in thefuture,” Van Dijk says.

Yet another innovation is the incor-poration of network infrastructure forcollaborative music events and pro-

grams with other schools in Canadaand the U.S. “They are working withMcGill [University] in Montreal, forexample, to hold remote recitals. Youmay have a master class recital with aMIDI-actuated piano on the stage inKoerner Hall, and on a retractablescreen you’ll see live video of a pianistsitting in McGill’s studio and playing aMIDI-equipped piano. The MIDI datawill be streamed in real time fromMontreal to the piano in Koerner Hallsome 500km away, and you’ll hear it inall the acoustic splendor of KoernerHall,” Van Dijk explains.

“In future, they see real-time musi-cal collaboration as a reality. To makeit as close to real-time as possible,they’ll be using a dedicated data pathand will know exactly what the propa-gation time is. This is the Telus Centre,after all, and Telus has guaranteed acertain allotment of bandwidth andcapability, so the highway is there.Now they just have to come up withthe things to plug into it.”

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TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO

um,” Giddings says. “And the inte-gration of the sound-reinforcementand voice-lift systems is nothingshort of brilliant.”

The house mix positionand sound control roomYet another design innovation was theprovision for a permanent mix posi-tion at the rear of the parterre level onthe centerline, just steps from thedoor to the sound control room locat-ed house right of the centerline (sym-metrical with the lighting control roomsituated house left).

The house mix position comprisesa wheeled dolly for sound equipment,a bulkhead that houses tie lines formicrophones, analog and digital audio(including CAT6 and fiber-optic cable),intercom, and performance video. Acable pass for temporary wire sets tothe sound control room and demount-able seating are also provided.

All permanent sound equipment ishoused in a rack room at the rear of

the sound control room, with theexception of hearing-assistancetransmitters and amplifiers that powerpassive loudspeakers with the associ-ated DSP; these are housed in anamp rack room up on the fourth levelnext to the dimmer room.

“They expended the money andeffort to have a permanent mix posi-tion—something that is missed on somany projects—which we strongly rec-ommended and coordinated closelywith the architect,” says Van Dijk. “It’sfantastic, because it accommodatestouring professionals who may beunfamiliar with the venue, giving thema comfortable place to mix that’s rightthere in the hall.

“Secondly, for a teaching facility, it’spreferable that the house mix positionis always there,” he says. “People cancome in and work with whatever isgoing on in the venue, and get a goodsense of what they’re doing. You couldsit in a control booth and be teachingsomeone about sound, but it’s not the

same as being immersed in the soundenvironment and hearing it naturally.You can’t really learn about sound verywell when you’re removed from it in abooth. Now students can go back andforth from the mix position to thebooth, where the main equipment ishoused. Alternatively, they can dosmaller reinforced events from thebooth. We’ve tried to integrate themonitors—which are properly delayedto coincide with arrival times from thestage—so that the monitoring levelreflects what’s going on in the hall, andthey get a sense of accurate levels. Ifit’s too loud in the booth, it’s probablytoo loud in the hall.”

A four-channel monitor feed isderived from the Soundcraft Si3 64-input digital house mixing console;there is no separate monitor consoleor large splitter system that would berequired to go along with it.Additionally, the Si3 allows saving andrecalling of shows as necessary.

“For budget reasons, we originally

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