XTA Installed in new Japanese performing arts centre.

The Alios Iwaki Performing Arts Centre is a newly built multipurpose city hall in Iwaki, Japan. The word ALIOS stands for Art, Life, Information, Oasis and Sightseeing. The sound system that was installed in to this new build included 16 XTA DP448 audio management systems.

Situated 300km east of Tokyo, the city of Iwaki is in the southern part of the Hamadori coastal region of Fukushima, Tohoku. Iwaki is the industrial hub for the region, and is also very popular with tourists – around 7.6 million visit each year.

The main hall of Iwaki Alios seats up to 1,700, and although it was mainly designed to stage classical concerts, musicals and classic Japanese theatre productions, careful consideration was given during the design stage so that all types of performances could be staged. The recently opened complex also comprises a 230-seater theatre as well as four band rehearsal rooms. In April 2009, a medium sized theatre with a capacity of up to 600 will be opened that is designed mainly for pop concerts.

The 16 DP448s are used to control the d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system. According to Kunitaka Fukatsu, a member of the sales division of Otaritec Corp., XTA’s Japanese distributor, even though the d&b D12 amplification system has its own crossovers and speaker management, “We used DP448s because we wanted to use Audiocore, which means we can drag PEQ [parametric EQ] in real time and the units have multiple filterbehaviours.”

“We connected the system via AES/EBU from a Yamaha PM5D mixing console to the DP448s and then to D12s. The acoustics of a big hall can change when it’s being used in a theatre format. A stage curtain and a sound reflection board were installed on the stage, and the height of the speakers in the proscenium can change, too for when it is being used as a concert hall. One of the great advantages of the XTAs is that they can easily store and recall adjusted level, EQ and delay, for each stage format. We also use XTA GQ600s for analogue graphic EQ.”

Fukatsu told us that numerous people were involved in the design and installation of the Iwaki Alios sound system. “Kazumiya Katayama and Katsutoshi Muranaka of sound system integrator Yamaha Sound Technologies Inc. designed and installed the system with the help of Masaya Uchida, a sound system consultant from Nagata Acoustics Inc.

“All this took place under the watchful eye of Tatsuo-Okada, the Chief Sound Engineer of the Iwaki Performing Arts Centre. We held various discussions with the stage control management staff during the initial stages of the building design and again as it neared completion. It is very rare to be able to have so much involvement in Japan.”

Other equipment installed included the aforementioned Yamaha PM5D mixing desk, as well as a DM2000 for recording at front of house in the main hall. An M7CL can be found at FOH in the smaller theatre and amplification is via d&b D12s and E-PACs.