d&b audiotechnics renews the audio of the Puerto Rico Fine Arts Center

The systems of&b audiotechnics are part of the new audio infrastructure project carried out at the Fine Arts Center of Puerto Rico, headquarters of the symphony orchestra of this country and the Casals projection festival.

The Center of Fine Arts of Puerto Rico (CBA), located in Santurce, a central location in the metropolitan area of ​​San Juan, It has a modern aesthetic structure, composed of four rooms and a multipurpose pavilion that, on the whole, can hold more than 3.000 viewers simultaneously. This artistic space, that maintains the theater tradition of this country since it opened its doors in 1981, has carried out an ambitious renovation project of its entire audio infrastructure that was completed at the beginning of this year.

After previous studies carried out by Daryl Bornstein, independent audio consultant hired by the CBA, The winner of the tender was Savi, New York-based audio company, who has been in charge of the engineering of the sound system under the supervision of Michael Cusick, sound designer of this company, with systems d&b audiotechnik. Among the requirements proposed by Bornstein was that “pre-assembly involved presenting a complete model, with the elimination of system failures and testing in front of the client - Cusick recalls -. As part of the proposal, they asked us to ride, We tested and commissioned each of the three audio systems necessary for the CBA venues in our New York workshop, before sending them to Puerto Rico. In addition to new technology, There was only a thirty-day window to install the three systems, test them and prepare them for use.".

Bornstein's proposal was to use all d's speaker systems&b audiotechnik for all three venues, with tables Midas for the two largest rooms, as well as a Yamaha for the smallest theater, black box type (with flexible stage and seating arrangement), called Experimental Theater at the CBA. As the designer of Savi explains, “Bornstein's designs indicated a J Series linear array system of d&b for what is known as the Festival Hall, the biggest of all, with a capacity of 1.875 personas. To which was added a Q Series system from d&b for the Drama Room, with a capacity of 775 personas, and another Q system in the Experimental Theater. In the latter the application is quite original, in a quadrilateral layout with the addition of a B4-SUB in each corner”.

One of the challenges achieved in the project focused on the Festival Hall, “since there is a pronounced emphasis on the bass. To solve this we installed four J-Infra subwoofers from d&b at ground level and a SUB array of four pairs of J-SUBs across the top of the proscenium vault - Cusick points out -. This attention to bass is determined by the program material typically presented in the CBA, since in addition to the expected concerts, opera and musical theater, the Festival Hall also hosts many salsa concerts, in which a rich tonality and powerful bass are part of the musical recipe”.

Savi's project has had the help of d's partner network&b, specifically with the Florida-based company Carlton Audio, and specifically with his live sound engineer Rodrigo “Drago” Herrera. For Chris Carlton, founder of this company, “He is a very competent professional.”, He knows a lot about digital tables and knows the entire range of d speakers.&b”. Thanks to this partner, The installation could be carried out on site with the help of a small team sent to Puerto Rico, “who was responsible for placing most of the cable infrastructure and preparing the positions of the amplifiers in advance of their physical installation, since the theaters were going to be inactive only for thirty days. For your part, Jason Waggoner, from the North Carolina US office of d&b, “tuned all three systems with us using the Swedish tuning program WaveCapture.”, Cusick points out..

The result of the project “has been quite an adventure for the Fine Arts,” says Josephine Márquez., CBA representative. The entire project has been very comfortable for us, from the proposal, installation and training, until full operation. We are very happy with the work of all the people involved and the sound is amazing.”.