LONDON, U.K. – Entec's sound department has completed a d&b sound installation at Stationers Hall, a grade one-listed building near St. Paul's Cathedral. The main hall is equipped with four d&b E8 loudspeakers. In the nearby Court Room, there are two more E8s, and for the Stock Room, two d&b E0s.
The building is home to the Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers. The company formed in 1559, and the building that now houses it dates back to 1763. It is owned by The Livery group, which also manages St Paul's Cathedral.
Stationers Hall's previous sound system was newer, of course. But since it had been in service for 10 years, it was due for an upgrade. The new system is designed to help the Stationers Hall venues better meet the need for events ranging from conferences, seminars and meetings to gala dinners, receptions, weddings and other functions.
Entec's Peter Codron took on overall sound design and project management of the new system, working closely with another Entec engineer, Liam Halpin, who designed the processing architecture.
"It was a tough brief," Codron said. "The audio system had to be completely multi-functional – excellent for speech and equally as good for background music. The Grade 1 listing status meant that at every stage of the design and installation, plans had to be approved and signed off by their surveyor."
Additional challenges included ensuring that the system provided a straightforward solution that could be operated by in-house staff, yet be flexible enough to cater for all the different configurations and events without hanging multiple speakers.
All the loudspeakers in the venue have been custom-painted to match their environs, and all are driven by d&b D6 amplifiers. The custom control rack casing was hand-crafted from English oak by Stationers' own cabinet makers from Wales and stained to match the dark wood colors of the paneling and other features around the hall.
The initial brief was to replace the existing PA system, provide a record option and 8 channels of radio, but this was then expanded to facilitate routing audio sources into any room, so a BiAMP distribution system was added to the spec with an Audia Solo 8×8 system processor.
Along with the solid state recorder, processing devices and control, Entec also supplied a Tascam CD player and a pair of Sontronics STC1 mics to replace their original banquet mics, plus 8 channels of Sennheiser G3 500 radios and a Soundcraft EPM12 mixer.
"I believe we have succeeded in giving the client a high performance and intelligible system with simple control and flexibility the venue required," said Codron. "They seem very happy with the outcome."
For more information, please visit www.entec-soundandlight.com.
