The New York City Performing Arts Centre recently benefited from a major renovation program which has transformed the venue into a premium destination for drama and music performances. The full system audio upgrade was designed by NYCC’s Augie J Propersi in association with Scott Lehrer, with acoustic consultancy from Kierkegaard Associates. Following on-site demos by TiMax distributor Duncan Crundwell of 1602Group LLC, TiMax2 Soundhub was specified as the overall system processor to provide routing, EQ and zone management plus the ground-breaking audio localisation capabilities of its automated dynamic delay-matrix.
Propersi explains, “We wanted the TiMax Soundhub to matrix the main house sound system and manage speaker alignment and sound imaging within the performance space – so for all the system timings as well as room tuning. The EQ section is very nice and overall the TiMax is so clean sounding. It is very neutral adding no colouration to the sound – it is certainly the level of quality we were looking for.
The NYCC theatre’s fundamental audio chain wasn’t altered dramatically, but the existing installation needed to be updated and the effect of physical changes from the renovation had to be addressed. A compact Studer Vista 5 console provides 42 channels of digital mixing and links via AES to the 48 in/out TiMax2 SoundHub matrix. The d&b loudspeaker system, ranging from J12s and B2s through Ci6s and C7s, E0s, E3s, E8s and E12s, to Q1s and Q-Subs are driven by D6 and D12 amps fed via AES connections from the TiMax.
The TiMax2 SoundHub unit is controlled via a multi-client system network of four dedicated Win7 computers hooked up to a four-user KVM system at mixer, amp room, RF table, and sound designer tech table, with additional wireless laptop and iPad support.
