Project

Moving from the 70s into the 21st century with d&b.

De Warande

20-12-2018 / Live /


De Warande cultural complex in Turnhout, Belgium celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021. In the last years a significant renovation project has made major changes inside the 1970s architectural shell. The work includes all new audio infrastructure for its main concert hall.


The program on offer at De Warande is varied, ranging from opera to modern dance and spoken word performances. The new sound system had to be able to cater to any of the challenges presented by this broad scope. The audio system was selected and designed by d&b partner Amptec – who installed a d&b Vi-Series system, futureproofing the venue for years to come.

"Choosing the Vi-Series wasn’t difficult at all. Our venue seats up to 800 people and acoustically is a very decent room, albeit quite dry when it comes to sound. We needed a PA system up for the job, with enough power for contemporary music reproduction but also with clear and transparent sound for spoken word or even opera or classical music. We did not have lots of space to fly a huge array, so form factor was important too."

As a leading AV company in Belgium, Amptec was able to deliver on the vision of the venue and incorporated an R90 touchscreen to ensure ease of use.


“Our design included a well-proportioned Vi8 line array optimized with ArrayProcessing for dispersion control. Centre and down-fills are made up of Vi7s and Vi10 point sources. Additional lip-fills and balcony delays complete the system.” explains Steven Aerts, Technical Project Manager at Amptec.


“A d&b R90 [touch screen remote control panel] sends custom presets to the 30D amplifiers and controls matrix routing within the Dante domain. The R90 allows you to operate the Dante domain without the Dante controller software, making it much more user-friendly” he continues.


The renovation was a complex process not always easy to navigate but the end-result speaks for itself.

"When Frank Geerts of Amptec called me over to have a first listen to our new PA system I must admit that it almost brought a tear to my eye. Listening to those first songs, it was everything I had hoped and asked for, and assured me that we were back in the game. Until this day, when I push the faders up on our mixing desk, it puts a smile on my face."

De Warande
Warandestraat 42
2300 Turnhout
Belgium
http://www.warande.be