The eponymous concert, located in the Baltic coastal resort town of Palanga, has just been outfitted with a state-of-the-art Outline audio system. The system is designed to handle all the diverse demands of a contemporary performance space.
The Palangos Concert Hall was completed in 2015 with a capacity of 2,200 seats, its striking near-circular design providing both intimacy and space for a range of productions including concerts, festivals, TV projects, theatrical performances, conferences and other events.
Specified and installed by Outline’s Lithuanian distributor NO NOISE LT, UAB under the guidance of their CEOs Kestutis Dulinskas and Linas Kazlauskas, the system draws extensively on Outline’s product portfolio but features their very latest product, the groundbreaking Superfly compact line-source module.
The brief from the client was very specific, demanding powerful but unobtrusive sound reinforcement that would provide smooth, even coverage for the entire room.
Using a combination of CAD 3D files, Outline’s Open Array 3D prediction / analysis software and the experience gained from many shows in the venue, Dulinskas describes his system design:
‘The audio configuration is not simple, because of the size and shape of the room. The main L/R arrays consist of twelve Superfly plus six Mantas 28 per side, with the Superfly cabinets working like far-field boxes for the balcony while the Mantas are effectively downfill speakers, mainly covering the lower parts of the hall. It may seem like a lot of speakers for this size of venue, but we need them to cover the nearly 90-degree vertical audience geometry. At the same time we have a good vertical dispersion control which avoids reflections from the ceiling.’
‘The hardest part of the design phase was to find the best subwoofer configuration for this venue. We started with a central cluster of eight DBS 18-2 subwoofers but this was not successful due to strong reflection from the ceiling, which cancels a lot of energy in the audience area. After extensive measurements and listening tests we decided to fly L-R subs, five per side, with an additional sub on the ground for the very first rows. This design works very well for the arena.’
Beyond the main L/R system, more Outline products were deployed in various roles around the room – Spectra and Vegas 12 CX modules were installed as outfills, more Vegas 12 CX were used as under-balcony fills while yet more Mantas 28s were located to provide infill and front fill coverage. The whole system is powered by just eight Outline X8 dante-equipped amplifiers while overall system control is provided by the all-new Outline NEWTON 16+8 digital hub.
The final and most important part of the project – what has been the reaction from the client and end-users? Dulinskas concludes, ‘I think the client is very happy. Now every show in this place will sound good from a PA aspect and the coverage is pretty good too. For any visiting rental company it is not possible to set up a sound system like this in the few hours they have before a show which means that all guest sound companies and engineers can now spend much more time on mixing their show, not in designing a PA. Even from the first shows after the installation was finished, visiting engineers were impressed by sound quality, coverage and power from the Outline system.’
