Reykjavik, Iceland (March 16, 2012)—Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre tackles business meetings and arts events, many of them held in the Eldborg hall, a new home for the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera, with a capacity of up to 1,800 seats. Designed by Artec Consultants of New York, the hall features an elaborate system of adaptable physical acoustics, which adjusts hall reverberation using moveable soft goods, overhead canopies, and doors to hidden reverberation chambers.
For amplified concerts, the hall uses a Meyer Sound reinforcement system. Based on an initial design from Artec’s principal consultant, Geoff Zink, the final system configuration was plotted by Kari Eythorsson of Exton, the Reykjavik-based integrator contracted for all AV, stage lighting, and communication systems.
The system’s main left and right hangs each comprise 10 Mica line array loudspeakers backed by five 600-HP subwoofers. The centre hang includes eight Mica loudspeakers co-flown from a single frame together with a total of 10 point-source loudspeakers of CQ-1, CQ-2, and UPA-1P arrayed beside, below, and behind the Mica loudspeakers for side-fill, down-fill, and rear choir fill.
Four UPJunior VariO loudspeakers are assigned to balcony fill, while 14 more UPJunior loudspeakers provide front fill in two sets for standard or extended stage front, and two CQ-2 loudspeakers handle corner fill. Drive is courtesy of a Galileo loudspeaker management system with three 616 processors and one 408 processor. The Eldborg hall system was commissioned by Bob McCarthy of Alignment & Design, Inc. using the SIM 3 audio analyzer.
One of the first concerts to use the system was a sold-out evening with Iceland’s own Björk. Other acts slated to use the system later in 2012 include James Taylor, Elvis Costello, and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull.
Meyer Sound Laboratories
www.meyersound.com
