Shanghai, the historically vibrant cultural gem of the Orient is regaining its lustre. Known for being the cosmopolitan heart of China, Shanghai is experiencing somewhat of an arts renaissance with impressive amounts of investment being made, enabling the 13 million strong city to make its name once again as a cultural landmark within the region. Shanghai's colourful theatrical heritage is also making a comeback. Key architectural monuments such as the Majestic and Lyceum theatres have been extensively modernised, while major new theatres such as the impressive Shanghai Grand Theatre have been constructed. . And the decision was made for a new entertainment and cultural complex, The Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre (OAC), to be constructed in the Pudong district of Shanghai. Completed in April 2005, the centre boasts three world class venues consisting of a 2,000 seat concert hall, 1,100 seat theatre and a 300 seat multi-function hall.

At the time of construction, back in 2001, this was the largest arts project in China, not only in terms of facilities but also of budget: ¥80M Renminbi (US$9.7M) was set aside for the entire audio visual installation.

It was the express directive that the OAC be equipped with the highest quality equipment available for all three venues, whilst taking into account each venue's specific application. In order to facilitate this, a series of auditions were conducted to initially decide which speaker systems be used in each venue. Xiang Jue, General Manager of the ACE Shanghai office explains, "Before the owners selected which brand of speaker was best suited for each venue, they invited local distributors and suppliers, who expressed interest in bidding for the OAC project, to bring their speakers for a shoot-out. This audition was unlike most as, in addition to all the suppliers, it was conducted in front of twenty-two consultants (comprising of twelve technical and ten non-technical consultants) and an audience of one hundred invited guests. In addition to acoustic consultants, the group of twenty-two also specialised in a variety of fields including composition, performance, production and show design. It was a very complete combination."

It was important to ensure that the shoot-out was both fair and unbiased, and to accomplish this all speaker brands were masked and given a unique number. Xiang continues, "Everyone listened to a variety of musical sources encompassing male and female vocals, orchestral performances and traditional Chinese songs. Each consultant then had to note a score for each section of the test. The scores were tallied and that presented the owner with the winning brand of that phase. All the brands auditioned were internationally well known and respected."

The winning speaker system which came out on top when auditioning for the Theatre installation was L-ACOUSTICS'.

Ben Lui, Shanghai ACETEC Audio Amplifying System Technology Co. Ltd. Assistant General Manager added, "The owners needed a turnkey solution and therefore besides the shoot-out, issues such as speaker quality, long term performance, technical support and back-up service were all key considerations in the turnkey selection process."

Once selected, the overall project installation period lasted twelve months and over that period ACE developed a very close working relationship with L-Acoustics' Chinese distributor Rightway Audio Consultants Ltd. A senior Rightway engineer directly assisted ACE on the project to provide guidance on the configuration and implementation of the L-Acoustics speaker systems, in addition to providing technical assistance in the tuning of the completed system.

The speaker configuration for the theatre comprises of fourteen dV-DOSC for the centre cluster, configured as three separate line arrays in a 3-8-3 format with the two outer arrays providing extra coverage for the balcony. Ten L-Acoustics ARCS enclosures are installed either side of the stage, each configured in a cluster of two rows of three ARCS and a single row of four. The additional ARCS enclosure on the bottom row of each cluster provides wider on-axis coverage to those seated nearer the stage. Explaining why the L-Acoustics ARCS were chosen for this application, instead of the dV-DOSC, Xiang explains, "The primary reason though was that these were the enclosures presented for the shoot-out. It would not have been possible to change to a different model even if we wanted to." The ARCS however were present at the shoot-out because of Rightway's belief that its specifications provide the ideal solution to the requirements of Chinese theatre design. "Up until now, it is generally preferable to conceal the main left and right speaker systems for aesthetic reasons, although the space to achieve this is usually an issue as it is quite limited in size." explains Rightway's Managing Director Danny Lau. "It is therefore common for Chinese theatres not to accept line arrays because of the extra depth that is required due to the curvature of the array. Considering the overall depth of Chinese theatres is usually quite limited. The dV-DOSC can control the horizontal response very accurately, but because of the limited directivity exhibited by line arrays in general, there wouldn't be enough coverage toward the front and centre of the venue. Coverage of around 140 degrees would be required, which is where the ARCS came into its own." Danny goes on to explain that "at the time of this project, ARCS was really the only horizontal line array available and therefore it really suited the application." According to ACE's Xiang, the precise coverage and directivity of the ARCS enclosures also assisted in alleviating a number of potential acoustic problems. "Because of the construction and shape of this theatre it was very easy for feedback and other serious acoustic issues to occur. Acoustically it is not an easy room, and therefore the precise control over directivity was a serious consideration. ARCS provided this and it really helped us in alleviating these potential problems."

Four L-Acoustics SB218 Reference Subwoofers were implemented into the overall design with six MTD108a small format two-way enclosures providing front fill. A further four MTD108a passive speakers provide foldback to the stage. The entire theatre is constructed with the ability to replay surround sound and a total of forty four MTD115b two-way enclosures are therefore mounted behind the stalls and to the rear of the single balcony.

A standardised system within all three venues was the preferred choice for all equipment located further up the audio chain, and it was a prerequisite that this needed to operate in the digital domain. The entire signal transmission path is therefore digital, via CobraNet, and is, according to ACE, the first entire digital audio networked PA system operating in China. All three venues are installed with Studer's flagship Vista 8 digital console feeding the CobraNet enabled BSS Prosys PS-8810CN digital signal processors. In addition to providing control over system-wide routing, the PS-8810CN also provides all the speaker management functions. A total of thirty eight power amplifiers (Crown's Macro-Tech MA-02 series) are provided to drive the L-Acoustics speakers.

The end of 2004 saw the completion of the concert hall, with the completion of the theatre and multi-purpose halls following not that far behind. The OAC's inaugural performance was staged in the concert hall on January 1st, 2005 receiving good reviews and a positive reaction from those within the Pudong District Government.

The Grand Opening of the entire facility is yet to be confirmed, with most expecting it to be during July or August of this year. However, all three venues are now complete and various rehearsals and performances have already been conducted in each to make sure that they are all performing as expected. Everything is progressing well, in fact, so much so that works are now being commissioned for public performance. As for the 1,100 seat theatre, after already hosting four major theatrical performances, this particular venue is fast becoming recognised as one of the leading theatres in China.

This is a very proud moment for Xiang and his team, as they have strived to manage the mammoth project with as little room for error as possible. "For the OAC project, we paid a great deal of attention to detail, explains Xiang, starting way before the selection process even took place in order to make sure that each stage of the project was successful. This gave us a very good chance of achieving the results that we all demanded. From the owner to the site supervision teams, to the systems integrator, we all worked closely together to achieve the desired results. For the theatre installation in particular, we worked very closely with Rightway and the results speak for themselves. ACE and Rightway, with L-Acoustics, were a good team."