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Music Season
HAMSADHWANI
It’s pleasantly different!
V. BALASUBRAMANIAN
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It is a new experience for the audience at the Music Academy thanks to the Bose state-of-the-art sound system.
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Sound quality is now uniform Excellent for Carnatic music Add-on modules will make it suitable for other streams
Photo: V. Ganesan.
Breakthrough: Spreading waves evenly to reach all parts of the hall.
The most essential aspect of an auditorium however splendid its architectural design and appearance is its sound system. The Music Academy has thoroughly revamped its sound system by installing the state-of-the-art Bose audio system.
N. Murali, president, The Music Academy, explains the background: “Sound has always been a problem for The Music Academy as the earlier system was rather outdated. Uneven sound, too loud in the front few rows and poor audibility on the balcony and beneath, was a major issue. In a nutshell, the distribution of sound was never uniform.
“Since 2005, when we took office, we have been hiring the Bose system. This qualitatively enhanced the output in the hall and a good feedback on the stage. As a part of the modernisation of infrastructure, installation of Bose systems was given the top priority. R. Srinivasan of Redington India came forward to donate funds towards this project. With the Bose system installed, sound quality is now excellent and uniformly distributed in the ground floor and balcony. The inherent acoustics of The Music Academy is basically good, compared to other auditoria. The system was formally launched on December 15 by N.R.Narayanamurthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd, Bangalore.”
Good reproduction
P.T.Krishnan, leading architect, who was involved in the entire process, adds: “The new system is tailored to the size and shape of the hall. Dead spots and echo spots have been totally eliminated. The reproduction is good. The new Bose system is good enough to cater to the needs of the Indian classical music concerts. For other genres of music, the user only needs to hire a couple of add-on modules.
“The installation of the speakers without disturbing the programmes that were already booked and without any damage to the existing false ceiling was quite a challenge. The down time for the hall was barely a week.”
Arun Kumar, Divisional Manager, Bose Corporation, says, “Be it a large or a medium sized hall, we have a unique solution for each. An exclusive software enables us to place the speakers at optimum spots for an appropriate sound spread, tonal quality and loudness that ensures audibility to every seat. If the hall is under construction, we involve ourselves right from the blue print stage to make things easier. We can perceive how the sound would be, with our software, even at that stage. There would be absolutely no difference between the simulated model and the actual.”
Kaushal Garg, their National Sales Manager, informs that Bose systems have been installed in prestigious public auditoria, large corporate houses, places of worship and educational institutions throughout the world.
Arun Kumar adds that 24 Bose speakers have been equally distributed throughout the Academy’s auditorium including the balcony for a well-balanced sound dispersion apart from the four monitors on stage that serve as the performers’ feed back.
The sound system is designed for a loudness of 80-85 decibels with a peak of 95 decibels without distortion. The 24 channel-4 bus Mackie Onyx 2404 mixer and the QSC amplifiers seamlessly blend with myriad cables to complete the system. The ESP-88 Bose’s matrix processor manages active equalisation of the speakers. At the touch of a knob the logic can be changed for various parameters.
A trial concert of T.M.Krishna was arranged with a full set of accompanists and after checking out sound distribution and the placement of monitors in the hall, the vocalist had this to say: “The balancing of different frequencies and their clarity is phenomenal. Uniformity is also superb. The sound level at the balcony has dramatically improved. The facility to handle speakers, individually, is a great boon.
S.L.Balaji, one of the city’s leading sound engineers, who is at the helm of the system at the Academy for the entire season, says that the system is excellent for classical music concerts.
So this time round, listening to musicians at the Music Academy is going to be a different and pleasant experience for the rasikas.
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