Denmark - Once confined to concert venues and festival stages, popular music is increasingly found in the halls of academia. Newly equipped with a variety of Meyer Sound wide-coverage loudspeakers, the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium or RMC) in Copenhagen has been at the forefront of contemporary music education since it was established in 1986. Today RMC offers coursework in music performance, music education, music and movement education, sound technology, music management, and songwriting.
With a direct connection to the Danish Ministry of Culture, the RMC prides itself on high standards and has consistently maintained an audio inventory to match. For its latest upgrade of the concert hall, EBB-consult outlined an exacting tender process, obliging companies to propose a loudspeaker configuration able to satisfy two distinct objectives.
"Firstly, it had to be able to serve as a classic PA," says Anders J°rgensen, project manager of Stouenborg, the Copenhagen-based installation company that fitted the new system. "Secondly, it needed to accommodate the RMC's sound technology program. This impacted the design; for example, we put in four subwoofers rather than the two actually required by the space, allowing students to experiment with a number of different configurations."
The choice of PA fell to an RMC-elected evaluation panel, with members voting in favour of a Meyer Sound system following an impressive demo of the manufacturer's UPQ-1P loudspeakers. The system's accuracy of coverage and excellent frequency response as well as its compliance to ISO regulations sealed the decision.
"The system had to abide by the NR 20 Noise Rating, meaning that the noise in the PA system had to be less than 25 dB(A)," says J°rgensen, who recently completed another Meyer Sound project at Aveny-T theatre in Frederiksberg.
Adhering to EBB-consult's design, Stouenborg installed a flexible system featuring two UPQ-1P loudspeakers for principal reinforcement, augmented by two UPJuniorVariO loudspeakers and four USW-1P subwoofers. Balcony delays are provided by two MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, supported by a pair of UP-4XP 48 V loudspeakers. System control and optimization are achieved via Meyer Sound's Galileo loudspeaker management system.
Tim Harris, RMC's facilities manager, is most impressed by the power and flexibility of the Meyer Sound system. "The system will support the learning of sound engineering theory and practical experimentation here at the RMC," Harris says.
