New York (February 27, 2012)—One of the defining characteristics of Godfrey Reggio’s classic avant garde film, Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out Of Balance, is its hypnotizing score by Philip Glass. That music was recently performed live to the film at Lincoln Center by the Philip Glass Ensemble along with the New York Philharmonic orchestra and the Collegiate Choir, all the while heard through compact RCF TT+ Series line arrays.
Simon Nathan, owner of Audio Production Services of Amawalk, NY, worked closely with Dan Dryden, FOH engineer for the Philip Glass Ensemble, to design the sound system for the event. “Because Avery Fisher hall is home to the Philharmonic, it doesn’t have an in-house system that could handle this performance,” said Nathan. “We were asked to provide a high-quality system that could cover the entire hall without impeding any stage sight lines, and provide clean, consistent sound throughout the room.”
Dryden chose the RCF TT+ Series, with single arrays each comprised of 10 TTL31-A modules flown left and right, attached to the overhead stage grid. “When specifying systems for the ensemble, I’m looking for smaller line arrays with flat frequency response,” said Dryden. “These were perfect. The low-mid frequencies are rich and warm, and the coverage was excellent.”
The overall footprint of these arrays was relatively small, measuring just less than two feet wide by about 10 feet deep. The self-powered, 2-way active line array modules are outfitted with a single-8-inch cone driver and three compression drivers feeding a horn with horizontal dispersion of 100 degrees. The mains were joined by four TTS56-A dual 21-inch subwoofers, two side-by-side on each side of the stage, and each of these sub sets hosted a single TT25 compact powered loudspeaker supplying in fill presence,. The house loudspeaker complement was completed with front fill via four TT052-A low-profile 2-way loudspeakers deployed along the front lip of the stage.
“The hall seats 2,800 with three balconies and box seats – it is a very large room,” said Nathan. “The arrays had no problem throwing all of the way to the back row of the top balcony without any need for delay fills. We had plenty of power for the space.”
