EV BALANCES RIDER-FRIENDLINESS, PRECISION & FLEXIBILITY AT CHRYSLER HALL, NORFOLK, VA

Having recently completed a sound system design project for the Scope complex hockey arena, WJHW were asked back to provide consulting services for Chrysler Hall, explained Kevin Day. Though a respectable design for its time, the decades-old sound system and acoustic treatment in the space needed updating. The room featured variable acoustics in a motorized curtain system that had, due to age, fallen into disrepair. When Day arrived to assess the situation, a central horn cluster was hanging below the proscenium, firing into a room with essentially no acoustic treatment. The time had come to install an easy to remove, touring-quality house system that also offered the precision of a permanently installed system for dramatic, live music and stereo playback performance.

Road-Proven, Rider-Friendly

To meet the rider specs of the tours and shows that visit Chrysler Hall as much as possible, line array was the format of choice from the beginning, and the XLC’s unmatched credentials as both a road and permanent install rig made it a natural candidate. Day spec’d three arrays of seven XLC127+ boxes in an LCR configuration, with low end support via six XLC215 subs, all powered by EV’s super-reliable P3000 amplifiers. Low-profile EV Xi1082 boxes serve as upper balcony fills, all powered by EV P1200 amplifiers. A Midas Verona 240 handles FOH duties; Klark Teknik Square One Graphics also offer great value sonic performance.

Easily Rigged, Easily Removed

With only two rigging points per array, the XLC is easily uninstalled and moved: each point has a shackle connection where a chain motor would normally be, allowing the motors to be applied and removed if necessary for visiting, PA-equipped shows, meaning the house budget wasn’t burdened with owning motors. In that regard, opting for trapezoidal loudspeaker clusters would have involved a far more complicated rigging scenario, Day added.

Ease of EASE

Beyond the XLC’s inherent sound quality, Day found EV’s DLL (Dynamically Linked Library) files for EASE to be extremely accurate during the digital modeling process; simply put, the XLC’s actual performance in the room matched what he measured, saving much time and tweaking. The house now enjoys impressive coverage on every seat, and Day estimates they would have required clusters of three 60 degree-wide horns at right and left to get comparable performance-again, a far less removeable alternative.

Minimal Footprint, Maximum Performance

Further enhancing the XLC’s superb stereo playback performance / minimal footprint ratio, the SIS (Stereo Imaging System) feature on the Verona 240 console at FOH offers real three-way LCR panning when needed; this has become the theatre’s preferred dramatic performance setup, keeping the dialog highly intelligible on the center array and the playback on left and right.

www.wjhw.com

www.dynamicsystems.com

Guy Low

Public Relations Producer

Telex Communications, Inc.

12000 Portland Ave. South

Burnsville, MN 55337

Phone: 952-736-3935

Fax: 952-736-4582

guy.low@us.telex.com

James Edlund

Public Relations Manager

Telex Communications, Inc.

12000 Portland Ave. South

Burnsville, MN 55337

Phone: 952-736-3901

Fax: 952-736-4582

james.edlund@us.telex.com