"Omaha, somewhere in middle America…"
When Adam Duritz of Counting Crows fame penned these words in 1993, he probably didn't know that we'd still be hearing them on the radio more than a decade later. And yet, for many people, this chorus may be the first thing that comes to mind when we hear mention of this Midwest city. David Lemke is one of many people working to change all of our minds. "When the vision was first brought about, by the lead donors, it was really their idea to do a superior music venue in Omaha," he says. Lemke, senior project architect for Omaha's HDR, says that aside from this directive, the design team had a lot of liberty to, well, design.
"So that was the goal, and the idea was that the house would hold about 2,000 seats. And those were really the parameters that were given: a music hall that could seat about 2,000 people. And then, they floated a budget number and said, 'Does this seem reasonable?' And beyond that, no decision had been made. So our first decision then was, do we do a proscenium house or a concert hall? And we put quite a bit of effort into just establishing that sort of idea."
That idea eventually became the Holland Performing Arts Center, the new centerpiece of Omaha's fine arts community.
Get Right To The Heart Of Matters
"So the idea of a concert hall–we had to educate ourselves a little bit, but we also had to really bring the client through that educational process. In the United States though, there were only a handful of pure concert halls, and there still are only a handful. In Europe, there are many more," Lemke says.
Lemke and his team traveled to Europe to get some inspiration and to decipher what components defined the most influential concert halls in the world.
"The Musikverein in Vienna was a great inspiration, I think, mostly because of its intimacy," says Jack Phillips, a senior associate with consulting architect Polshek Partnership. "We felt like the intimacy was really a powerful aspect."
Working with acclaimed acoustical consultants Kirkegaard Associates, the architects decided on a "modified shoebox" design for the new hall, striving to create an intimate listening environment for 2,000 patrons. Phillips discussed the issue with FOH
"What we tried to do was really pack near the front of the stage everyone that we could without compromising at all the sound and the sight lines. We studied a bunch of different scenarios in our planning. We even looked at one point at three balconies, and it ended up pushing people too far away from the stage," he says.
"How could we scale back and make people feel as if they were part of the room?"
Barbara Spandorf, an associate with Fisher Dachs Associates, was responsible for much of the sightline modeling and working with the architects to finetune the seating layout.
"We knew that we had to make 2,000 seats, so we worked very hard to find the appropriate distribution of seats. We went through many variations with the whole design team. Two balconies, three balconies, bigger balconies, smaller balconies, until we finally all came to what was ultimately built," she says.
It's the Heart That Matters More
Fisher Dachs was also responsible for the design of the stage lighting as well as the complex rigging systems found throughout the hall.
A large part of FDA's work was to implement the variable acoustics systems specified by the acousticians. The first of these systems is an operable orchestra shell floating above the stage.
"There are winched onstage acoustical reflectors. Each reflector is on two winches; one on the upstage edge and one on the downstage edge, so that you can adjust the height and the angle of each reflector," said Joe Mobilia, an associate principal with FDA.
With each reflector weighing in at 12,000 to 15,000 pounds, the engineers chose to install double-purchase winch systems to reduce the working load on each motor.
Two more systems work in conjunction with the acoustical clouds to offer this unprecedented control over the acoustical quality of the space.
The first, a set of framed fiberglass panels that descend from the ceiling high above the stage, were dubbed the "toasters' by the team.
"Imagine," said Mobilia, "that when the panels are deployed, they extend 12 feet from the underside of the ceiling. That 12-foot assembly actually consists of two six-foot tall pieces that are interlocked. And those, in turn, are connected to a double-speed winch. The lower set of panels is on a larger diameter cable drum than the upper set of panels. So, as the single winch moves, the things telescope out to the desired position."
The system also includes felt wall coverings on motorized rollers with multiple control zones to allow the maximum amount of flexibility to the acousticians.
Control for all of the motorized systems is via a custom-designed touchscreen system provided by J.R. Clancy. Access is also offered via a wired handheld remote for onstage activation of position presets.
I Think You Better Turn Your Ticket In
Though the bulk of material in the room will not be miked, there will at times be Pops performances and electronic presentations requiring amplification.
From opening day, the house will use a full complement of Shure, AKG, and DPA microphones, with Shure ULX wireless systems adding extra flexibility.
Richard Laidman with Kirkegaard says, "There is an extensive microphone snake and splitting system that allows monitor mix from either side of the stage and recording in the remote warm-up room, which may be configured as a temporary recording booth, as needed."
All sources will be handled by a Soundcraft MH3, with outboard processing and effects via Presonus, Ashly, TC Electronic and Yamaha components.
"The main mixing console is operated from a convertible in-house mix position. During classical concerts, lectures or other events that are not amplification-intensive, the console may be removed, allowing mixing to occur from a smaller utility mixer positioned in the booth for this purpose," Laidman says.
Board outputs feed a set of four Symetrix SymNet boxes, which pass on their processed signal to an arsenal of more than 25 QSC CX and Powerlight amplifiers.
The loudspeaker systems for the room were split into separate music and voice systems, with the voice system constantly available for introductions and announcements.
The main music cluster offered a challenge, as the design team was not interested in having a large, ever-present cluster hanging in the middle of the room. The solution was to make use of one more set of winches, as well as the installation of a remotelyoperable trap door in one of the acoustical clouds, through which the seven-cabinet EAW line array is lowered into position.
Mobilia commented on this sleek innovation: "There are trap doors in the ceiling that open up via winches to let speakers pass through. They just go up into the ceiling and the door closes behind them. The speaker doors on the reflectors are slotted so that once they lower the speakers down below the reflectors, you can close the door behind it, and the slots clear the lifting lines."
The music system is filled out with front- fill and subwoofer cabinets, while the voice system consists of EAW steerable line arrays, Radia Pro line-source boxes and under-balcony fills in custom architectural cut-outs.
And Get Your Money Back At The Door
"I think it's a very special hall, and I think it's bound to become a real landmark for the Omaha community," commented Spandorf. "We're very proud of how it's come out."
I don't know about Mr. Duritz, but the next time I hear the name of this city "somewhere in middle America," I'm going to be much more likely to use that ticket to walk right in to the doors of this musical Mecca.
Phil Gilbert spent two years as an associate with an Austin-based acoustical and audiovisual consulting firm. You can reach him at pgilbert@plsn.com.
Gear
4 Whirlwind Direct Boxes
1 Shure ULX Series Wireless Receiver
with Lavalier and Handheld
Transmitters
1 Soundcraft MH3
1 Presonus ACP88 Compressor/Limiter
1 Ashly MXQ2310 Equalizer
1 Yamaha REV500 Reverb
1 TC Electronic M-one Reverb
1 Symetrix SymNet DSP
1 Marantz CDR510 CD Recorder
1 Marantz PMD340 CD/MP3 Player
1 Tascam MD350 MiniDisc Recorder
6 QSC Powerlight Series Amplifiers
21 QSC CX Series Amplifiers
6 EAW DSA250 Loudspeakers (Voice)
7 EAW KF760 Series Loudspeakers (Music)
170 Aura Sound NS-193-8A Stage Lip Loudspeakers
16 Electro-Voice 405 Under-Balcony Loudspeakers
28 Mackie CIS400 Side-Balcony Loudspeakers
8 Radia Pro Z-40 Upper Side-Balcony Loudspeakers
18 Electro-Voice 405 Choir Balcony Loudspeakers
4 Renkus-Heinz TRX-61 Organ Loft Loudspeakers
4 EAW SB-180 Subwoofers
