Sonnox - Audio Media

TM Audio & Lightco Fit Out De Vorstin
The media city of Hilversum,
half an hour from
Amsterdam, home to
most of the Netherlands’
leading television and radio broadcasters,
is now the proud possessor of a
new, highly striking €11.8m concert
building, with new sound and lighting
systems from sister Ampco Flashlight
Group companies TM Audio and
Lightco respectively.
De Vorstin Poppodium (‘The Queen
Pop Stage’), a complex steel structure,
that looks like a space-age remodelling
of Manhattan’s Flatiron Building, has
no internal right angles – good news for
the acoustics.
It was designed by Architecten Cie,
which also has the Heineken Music
Hall in Amsterdam to its credit, and
similar attention to detail can be found
at De Vorstin. High quality finishes
and a wide range of additional facilities
including a rehearsal studio add to
features such as a dedicated artists’ café.
With an audio and lighting installation
by Ampco Flashlight Group
companies TM Audio and Lightco, the
venue is intended primarily for pop and
rock bands and is fully equipped with
plug’n’play outside broadcast facilities.
Visitors can head either for the 850
DiGiCo SD9 on the Road with Roger Hodgson
Supertramp co-founder Roger Hodgson is currently
touring with Front of House Engineer Howard
Heckers, a DiGiCo SD9, and a pair of
DiGiRacks.
“The reasons we chose the SD9 are its
sound-quality, flexibility, and its size – it is
very compact to travel with,” says Heckers.
“Sometimes we have a flight to catch after
every other show; the SD9 makes it easy for
us to travel and still use our own FOH desk.”
Another feature he likes about the SD9 is
that they can only use one stage rack if Roger is playing a solo
show, or use both when he is doing shows with a full band.
standing capacity Main Hall,
which alternatively provides
retractable seating for 260
people, or the smaller Podium
Café that accommodates 300.
The latter displays a sense
of visual humour with a flown
mobile made up of a jumble of
old hi-fi loudspeakers of various
pedigrees. This is purely
for show, because in either
corner of the small stage area,
designed for small bands, solo performances,
jazz and the like, is a flown pair
of Martin Audio W8LM mini line arrays
with down-fills either side and a WSX18
subwoofer.
Martin LE1200 or LE1500
floor monitors can be provided
from De Vorstin’s spacious
equipment store as required,
while the mixing console chosen
for this multi-purpose
space is a DiGiCo SD8.
Upstairs, the Main Hall
shares the asymmetrical
design approach with a balcony
running around three sides.
A wide stage 2m high is backed
by rack rooms for the Martin
Audio amplifiers, XTA signal
processing, and an Allen &
Heath iDR-8 audio distribution
system.
The Main Hall’s PA is flown
The console was supplied by DiGiCo’s Dutch distributor
TM Audio. “When we delivered the SD9 to Howard’s
studio, he was familiar with the complete
console within an hour – it is that easy to
learn,” says the company’s Jaap Pronk.
“When Roger and I hooked up the gear
and listened to it, it sounded absolutely
gorgeous, really crystal clear,” Heckers adds.
“In combination with the RME MADIface
it is also really easy to fine tune the mixes
after the soundcheck, or even bring the desk
back to the hotel room after the show and fine-tune all
my effects.”
high and wide and comprises seven
W8LM cabinets a side, while on stage is
a compact ground stack either side that
provides near stage infills in the shape of
Martin Audio’s new W8VDQ cabinets,
each mounted atop a Martin Audio ASX
subwoofer.
Flying hardware is a TM Audio
custom fixed installation frame, saving
space and weight compared to the
standard touring version. Further fills
are served by Martin H3T+ and S218
compact subwoofers. Stage monitoring
is all via Martin LE1200 wedges.
Two DiGiCo SD8 consoles serve the
Main Hall, with a Midas Heritage 2000
as an analogue option. To complement
this flexibility TM Audio installed both
digital and analogue cabling systems.
VITAL STATISTICS –
THE NETHERLANDS
FULL NAME The Kingdom of
the
Netherlands
POPULATION 16.7 million
(UN, 2010)
CAPITAL Amsterdam;
seat of
government:
The Hague
MAJOR LANGUAGE
MONETARY UNIT
MAIN EXPORTS
Dutch
1 euro
= 100 cents
Metal
manufacturing,
chemicals,
foodstuffs
GNI PER CAPITA US $49,350
(World Bank,
2009)
INTERNET DOMAIN
.nl
INTERNATIONAL +31
DIALLING CODE
24
AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2011