Harman Professional uplift the sound experience
of the performances at Bangalore Gayana Samaja
HARMAN Professional India adds another feather to its hat
with the recent renovations of audio infrastructure giving one
of the oldest running sabha’s in the country a much overdue
facelift. The Bangalore Gayana Samaja, originally constructed
in the 1962, went through a complete facelift over a period of 8
months. While preserving the original aesthetics of the venue,
the 600 seater auditorium had improved acoustics designed
and installed by the HARMAN professional team of experts,
in partnership with Bangalore based system integrator -
Waveguide Systems.
Though Bangalore Gayana Samaja was one of the first
performance venue of the country and was known for hosting
some of the best concerts in Carnatic classical music, the
sound design required a serious overhaul. The main PA
would only cover the venue from the middle to 3/4th of the
hall, while rest of the seats would get sound as a result of the
reflection from walls and the analog mixer had limitations of
output and processing. To make the hallowed venue sound as
good as any new auditorium, Sunil Karanjikar, Application
Engin eer at Harman Professional India, who worked on the
design of the system says, “The project was prestigious for
Harman to work on while at the same time posed challenges
due to the venue’s old architecture. The beams could not take
the weight of heavy line array speakers and the reflection from
walls varied the sound impression for the audience. We had to
deliver a system which would not only overcome the venue’s
architectural challenges but also be cost effective as BGS is a
free entry venue.” Sunil also expressed his gratitude saying,
“We would like to thank Mr. Giridhar Ghattam Udupa, one of
India’s leading percussionist, Ghatam player and a Harman
Professional India endorsee who reached out to us for the
acoustic facelift of the venue.”
Acknowledging the challenges of this emblematic venue and
commending the superior consultation and solutions provided
by HARMAN Professional, the President of BGS Dr. M.R.V.
Prasad said, "Our auditorium has a capacity of six hundred
seats but our earlier sound system was not very good and it is
the heart of a music auditorium. We decided to entrust this job
of installing an efficient and a good quality sound system to
a renowned company making the Harman professional India
team the obvious choice. Within a short span of time, they
have done a wonderful job - The planning and installation of
the equipment were done in a very timely, cost-effective and
professional way. I must thank the entire team of professionals
lead by Mr. Sohan K.P. of Wave Guide Systems & HARMAN
Professional India for providing us a state of the art sound
system specially designed for music. The artistes are very
happy to perform on our stage because of the new sound
system.”
Commenting on the planning, Mr. Sohan K.P. of Waveguide
Systems said, “The brief for the project was given to us on 1st
Jan 2017, our team delivered the project in mere 15 days and
we were ready for the opening on 15th of Jan 2017. The system
was designed in a non-conventional manner; lightweight
speakers that fit the requirement were suspended from the
support structure and tuned to reach the seats with the least
amount of reflections from the walls.
We have seen some of the best classical performances at the
BGS. When we received the query for the acoustic facelift
of the venue, our team was extremely excited to give the
best solution possible along with the support of Harman
Professional India team. There were major issues with the
equipment used by BGS earlier. Use of an analog mixer limited
their number of outputs and processing, such as graphic EQ,
time delay unit or crossover. The Harman professional India
team helped us design a system that would overcome all these
challenges in a very short span of time. Though the technical
staff at Bangalore Gayana Samaja was not comfortable
using digital mixing consoles and control systems. We were
successful in convincing them to switch from analog to digital.
We knew that this task would take time but training and hand
holding for the first few and important shows at BGS made the
transition very smooth and easy. We’re indeed happy to have
successfully completed this prestigious project.”
Just 2 units of JBL MD55 loudspeakers constitute the main
PA along with 2 units of JBL ASB6115 subwoofers. Additional
loudspeakers included 4 units of JBL AC15 for front fills, 2
units JBL AC25 for under balcony, and 4 units of JBL AC28
for upper balcony fills. Crown DCi network amplifiers drive
all the speakers, and the inputs are fed via BSS BLU link.
The JBL STX 812M are used for stage monitoring driven by
Crown XTi4002 power amplifiers. The FOH and MOH mix is
done on the Soundcraft Si expression II digital mixing console.
The complete system processing and control is done on the
BSS BLU 100 with HiQnet Audio Architect software with
customized panel controls for different zones.
Prashant Govindan, Sr. Director Harman Professional India,
said “India has a rich heritage of classical music and Harman
Professional India remains committed to the nurturing and
revival of classical and traditional music genres. We are
Delighted to be a part of Bangalore Gayana Samaja which
celebrates this movement. The audience can now listen to
their favourite musical maestros in a modern setting with an
enhanced listening pleasure by Harman’s true fidelity sound.”
The
Score Magazine
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