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KIVA™ System “A Class Act” For Colburn School’s New Thayer Hall

February 2008

LOS ANGELES -- The Colburn School, located in the heart of the music and arts district in downtown Los Angeles, has installed an L-ACOUSTICS KIVA™ line source array system with KILO low frequency extension speakers in Thayer Hall, a newly constructed 200-seat performance and instruction space. The loudspeaker system, which is powered by L-ACOUSTICS LA4 amplified controllers and also includes the company’s 108P self-powered reference monitors for left, center and right stage lip fill, was specified by A/V consultants Sonitus and is integrated into a campus-wide audio and video network.

Sonitus principal Fred Vogler, an L.A.-based independent consultant, sound designer and engineer, recommended the setup of four ultra-compact KIVA line source array elements flown below a single KILO LF extension on each side of the intimate Thayer Hall stage. “I’ve had success using L-ACOUSTICS speakers at the Hollywood Bowl,” explains Vogler, who works the entire summer season of L.A. Philharmonic and contemporary music events at the Hollywood Bowl, which features substantial
V-DOSC® and dV-DOSC arrays. “My experience with L-ACOUSTICS has shown that it’s a great speaker for all types of music, whether it’s heavy rock or subtle classical amplification.”

The KIVA and KILO systems, which were introduced less than a year ago, appealed for the new Thayer Hall installation for a number of reasons, he says. “These are the baby brothers of the dV-DOSC and brand new on the scene, and we didn’t need something that was too imposing. Especially in a small concert hall, you don’t want a large eyesore of loudspeaker technology. The coloring and shape of them also matches the style of this facility.”

Sonitus is an affiliation of independent consultants that offers sonic environment solutions, says Vogler. “There are a couple of folks that work with me and we divvy up the workload; somebody designs the audio network paths, someone looks over the video elements.”

Thayer Hall, which opened in September, is additionally outfitted for webcasting, video displays and long-distance teaching. “We’re excited because the L-ACOUSTICS system integrates well with all of the digital networking that we’re providing,” shares Vogler. “We have CobraNet for live sound and EtherSound for recorded elements. We can channel it locally at each of the performance venues or distribute it throughout the campus, including the internal cable video network.”

The new hall is part of a $120 million, 326,000 square-foot, 12-story expansion of the Colburn School, known as the Olive building, that incorporates performance, rehearsal and teaching facilities, a student lounge and publicly accessible cafeteria, and residential housing for up to 145 students. The performance space is also used for student film nights. “They have a large screen that can drop down on the upstage side of the stage,” Vogler reports. “The KIVA arrays then become the left and right channels for the movie sound.”

The Colburn School has been at its present Grand Avenue location, separated by a plaza from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and a stone’s throw from the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, since 1998. It comprises a School of Performing Arts and a degree-granting Conservatory of Music. All four programs offered by the Conservatory are fully endowed and cover tuition, room and board costs for each student.

The campus also houses the 450-seat Herbert Zipper Concert Hall, considered to be acoustically one of the best performance spaces in the L.A. area, the Mayman Hall, a 100-seat recital hall, and two Rehearsal Halls that are additionally used for instruction and also accommodate recording.

For more information on Colburn School and its facilities, visit www.colburnschool.edu

photo credit: Arden Ash

KUDO™ Delivers Righteous Sound At Babeville

January 2008

BUFFALO, New York -- Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco recently played the opening nights of her hometown’s newest music venue, Asbury Hall, a 1,000-capacity performance space within a 19th century church in downtown Buffalo. The Church facility and Asbury Hall, known collectively as Babeville, are actually the latest grand-scale DIY project for the folksinger, always a champion of community and social activism as well as independent music. DiFranco and her partner in Righteous Babe Records, Scot Fisher, saved The Church from demolition, purchasing the historical site from the City of Buffalo, and kicking off a long restoration process back in 2000. Klondike Sound specified and installed an impressive sound system, made up primarily of L-ACOUSTICS components, including the KUDO™ line array.

Klondike Sound owner John “Klon” Koehler began working with DiFranco in 1996, a pivotal year for his company. “We made a leap of faith in ’96 to buy an L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC® line array and there’s still nothing better,” Klon shares. “The decision I made back then has led me all the way to this incredible installation. Ani has always understood how art and science come together – that a full-fidelity sound system would help her deliver her message. When we started touring regularly with Ani, we began using the V-DOSC system and people all over the U.S. and Canada were commenting on how amazing her shows were. In the ten years since, L-ACOUSTICS has always been our loudspeaker of choice.”

The Church and parish building make up a large complex that DiFranco and Fisher have put to good use – the sanctuary is the performance space, and the attached parish building and basement spaces house Righteous Babe Records’ headquarters, as well as Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Klon got involved in the Asbury Church restoration in January of 2002, being called on to assess the suitability of the sanctuary for live performance and to make recommendations regarding rigging points, electrical power distribution, stage size and access, and to begin designing a sound reinforcement system. “Scot Fisher understood how important it is to the success of a show to accommodate the needs of touring production,” Klon shares. “Basically a show starts and ends on the loading dock and if you don’t have a reasonable flow of equipment, building services and accommodation for tour personnel, the show will suffer. The objective here was to provide the best possible production conditions.”

Once the roof-off renovation was completed and the building could be safely occupied, Klon addressed the acoustic challenges. “I sought the opinion of my friend Sam Berkow, who came to The Church with me in September of 2006 and made some recommendations, which we followed to the letter,” Klon reports. “We wanted to preserve as much of the 19th century aesthetics that this venue had, but bring it to a 21st century level of production quality. Sam did a great job of specifying acoustical treatment in places where it wouldn’t be noticed and brought down the adverse reflections in the room considerably.”

Conceived as a multipurpose venue, though primarily for standing-room-only music shows, the Asbury Church performance space needed a sound system to suit multiple venue seating arrangements. Klon summarizes: “There are 31 L-ACOUSTICS loudspeakers in the room, all very carefully time-aligned and aimed to serve a variety of seating configurations, with no compromise for concerts. We went to L-ACOUSTICS with architectural drawings early on – this was a design/build opportunity and we wanted the optimal system design.”

Jim Kinkella, head of engineering services for L-ACOUSTICS US, used the manufacturer’s SOUNDVISION acoustical modeling software to help visualize the performance of various L-ACOUSTICS products in a variety of locations around the room. “We came up with very uniform SPL coverage mapping to achieve the end results,” notes Klon. The system, installed over September 7-8, consists of two five-element L-ACOUSTICS KUDO arrays arranged left and right, and powered by eight
L-ACOUSTICS LA48a amplifiers. The arrays serve most of the main floor and the side balconies. A pair of 112XT coaxial loudspeakers covers the tips of the horseshoe balcony, out of the pattern of the main speakers, and a small cluster of three dV-DOSC enclosures serves just the rear balcony; both are powered by a total of two
L-ACOUSTICS LA17a amps. The front-fill system consists of four L-ACOUSTICS 8XT coaxial speakers, on the front lip of the stage, powered by an LA4 processor/amplifier. Another eight 8XT on custom brackets are installed on the underside of the side balconies, spaced about 15 feet apart down the length of the room, and powered by another LA4. Four L-ACOUSTICS 112P self-powered speakers round out the loudspeaker complement and can be used as additional front fills or stage monitors.

The Asbury Church install was Klon’s first experience with certain L-ACOUSTICS components, on which he comments: “I am very impressed with the horizontal directivity control of KUDO, and also the quality control in terms of driver-to-driver matching. L-ACOUSTICS products are evenly voiced from V-DOSC down to 8XT. Also, I’d say the 8XT, of which there are a dozen in this installation, are good enough to be project studio monitors.”

Klon mentions Craig Chapman of Buffalo’s RPM Entertainment as the system’s co-installer. “He handled everything upstream of the XTA DP226 and DP224 processors, including the Whirlwind snake system and 24-channel Soundcraft GB8 mixing console. We felt that the front-end components should be handled locally, since there’s so much flexibility needed in this area.”

According to Klon, Berkow’s acoustical recommendations and the L-ACOUSTICS system has truly optimized Asbury Hall as a concert venue. “The hall had a ‘soft-opening’ without a proper audio system almost a year ago and had developed a reputation as being inappropriate for amplified music,” explains Klon. “But, within 24 hours after the opening on September 11, there were three promoters in Buffalo all ready to produce shows there based on rave reviews from the audience and press.”

For more information on Asbury Hall at The Church, visit www.thechurchbuffalo.com. Klondike Sound can likewise be found on the Web at www.klondikesound.com.

photo credit: Mike Golner / www.mojofunk.org)