Hanoi, Vietnam (February 2, 2024)—The new Ho Guom Opera in Hanoi, Vietnam threw open its doors for a soft opening this past July, enchanting audiences with its architecture, amenities, and aural environments created by a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security operates the theater; General Tô Lâm, Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security, pointed out the facility’s importance in the country’s arts community, noting, “We need a place with a good sound field for artists to flourish.”
The 900-seat hall in the new performing arts complex is a multi-purpose venue intended for all arts and entertainment genres. In addition to opera in the Eastern and Western traditions, the hall also hosts symphony concerts, Broadway musicals, ballet, jazz and pop concerts, conferences, and film screenings. With Constellation, both the intensity and spectral envelope of the reverberant field can be optimized to the needs of a given event, with multiple zones allowing fine-tuning of the effect both on stage and in different sections of the auditorium.
However, as originally proposed by Vietnamese government officials, the Ho Guom Opera was intended to host classical orchestral and choral concerts. “As we progressed through the design development, the concept evolved,” says Paris-based acoustic engineer Antoine Pommier of international consulting firm Delhom Acoustics.
The Constellation system at Ho Guom Opera comprises 165 full-range self-powered loudspeakers placed discreetly on the side walls and overhead in the auditorium as well as around the stage, with a dedicated D-Mitri DVRAS processor for each of the five reverberant zones. Deep bass extension for Constellation is provided by 16 small subwoofers, and a total of 57 miniature condenser microphones are deployed throughout the space for ambient acoustical sensing.
For amplified events, the venue uses a house system anchored by 24 Leopard compact linear line array loudspeakers, with 12 900-LFC low-frequency control elements for bass extension. Fill and delay requirements are met by a contingent of 32 point-source loudspeakers, with Ultra-X40, UP‑4slim, and Ultra-X20XP deployed as appropriate.
Since the Ho Guom Opera opened, it has hosted performances by the Vietnam National Symphony, the Sun Symphony Orchestra, Katy Perry, and Kenny G. General Lâm noted, “With symphony concerts, the instruments have very natural, soft sounds. And with pop music, the P.A. system really gives beautiful sound. We aim for high-quality concert programs, with major orchestras and artists from around the world coming here to perform. When introduced to our theater, major orchestras and artists around the world trust us and are willing to cooperate with us in the future.”
In addition to Delhom Acoustics agencies in France, China & Vietnam, Delhom Acoustics founder & CEO Jean-Philippe Delhom played a key role in the initial phase of the project. On the Meyer Sound side, Constellation Project Director John Pellowe served as principal liaison with the client and the Delhom team, and performed the system voicing, while Jessica Borowski was primarily responsible for system design and worked alongside Tom Cavnar on calibration.
