Celebrating culture

A common theme within the A/V industry in the Middle East at the moment is the rise of Doha as the city to do business in. Qatar has recently been declared the richest country in the world and a significant amount of this wealth is being invested back into the nation. As it looks to build more facilities, an ever-increasing number of Government projects are coming online. When you add in factors such as its 2022 FIFA World Cup bid and the new infrastructure related to this you can understand why a large number of distributors and installation companies are taking a serious look at the country.

While there are many projects which are currently in the planning stages, some of the nation’s ambitious developments are already coming online. One such example is the Qatar Cultural Village. Much like its UAE equivalent, the development looks to celebrate the region’s diverse culture and be a hub for cultural events in Qatar – with high-end facilities to match.

When building a new development that is designed to be a cultural beacon one of the most vital considerations has to be the A/V equipment. International-class performances can be hampered by poor-quality equipment, and not making the correct initial investment can prove to be a costly mistake.

This is something that the Cultural Village development in Qatar has been keen to avoid. Over a 99-hectare site in Doha, the development will feature offices, guest and function rooms, souks, mosques and an entertainment area with multi-purpose amphitheatre and a state-of-the-art theatre. With the aim of making culture come to life, these facilities will showcase international concerts and plays, as well as performances from the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.

This was a multi-site project, covering everything from small function and meeting rooms to large-scale multi-purpose performance spaces. While each installation had its own nuances, it is the systems installed for the large spaces that are particularly interesting.

The differing needs of each building within the complex ensured a different system design from Siemens – the main A/V contractor. But in the case of both the theatre and the multi-purpose hall, a large amount of L-Acoustics and Sennheiser equipment was selected from Dubai-based distributor Venuetech, which supplied all the A/V equipment for the project. The main installation was handled by the local Siemens team out of its Doha office, while Venuetech provided the commissioning, setup and training for the client. While Venuetech was not involved with the final installation of the system it provided support to Siemens in terms of product knowledge and training.

‘We had a certain BoQ and design from the consultant, but over the course of the project we were able to update this to the latest equipment,’ says Elie Khairallah, technical director at Venuetech. ‘It’s a high-performance system adapted to modern facilities.’

The theatre

Qatar Cultural Village’s theatre space is split into two halls. The first is for live performance and features a main audience space, plus boxes on three further levels that all needed to be covered by the audio system. The second is a cinema that required the appropriate sound system.

The sound system consists of two Yamaha 02R mixers – one for the stage area and a second for the control room – which can both be used to control the main audio system. The two mixers are linked together via two Aviom 6416Y2 cards that provide 16 inputs and 16 outputs in both directions. The hall has ceiling-suspended L-R hangs of three L-Acoustics Arcs with two SB118s per side ground stacked. Behind the screen there is an L-C-R formation of 115 HiQs with an SB118 placed between the L-C-R cabinets. Surround comes from 24 8XTs which are located in pairs around the seating area. Three LA4 amps are used to power the Arcs and accompanying subs and a further five are used for the rest of the system. The system also consists of a Crestron media control system, a Sanyo projector, ClearCom intercom set, plus equipment from Sennheiser, Extron, Ashly, Denon and Genelec, as well as 12 L-Acoustics 112P stage monitors for live performances.

The second hall in this complex is slightly more intricate with the system divided into different areas and functions. At FOH, the same L-R setup is used with three Arcs and two SB118s per side. These are powered by three LA4s with four Ashly GQX-3102s as EQ’s. The projection is handled by a Sanyo PLC-XF46 with Crestron media control – which feeds into the lighting, building management and rigging systems – and Extron audio/video splitter. Kit from Genelec, Sennheiser, Clearcom and Denon are also included in this part of the installation. Connected to this area by an Ashly ne24.24 is the system for the boxes, this consists of eight LA4s each powering four 8XTs. A second Yamaha desk controls the 12 112P stage monitors and Sennheiser wireless mic setup for the stage. The final part of the system is the cinema system. One LA4 powers the left and right 115 HiQs with a second used for the centre plus the 118 subs. Two further LA4s each control eight 8XTs. In both halls, the cinema projector in use is a Cinemeccanica Victoria 5BS.

For both halls L-Acoustics’ LA Manager control software was relied upon heavily. This was used to position and align the sound system to ensure the whole of the hall received even coverage. ‘You can put everything in and manage the setup of all the speakers. All the speakers are managed within the two amplifier models.’ Mr Khairallah sees this software as part of the whole L-Acoustics system: ‘L-Acoustics today doesn’t sell amps or speakers, they only sell systems, this software makes it more simple and easy to manage.’

One of the challenges faced here was a changing design for the live performance hall. ‘We had to add speakers to each of the boxes, and every speaker had its own processing and delay,’ explains Mr Khairallah. ‘It’s a mixture of many applications including cinema. You are in a small room and don’t have the coverage of a cinema system, so you have a mono distribution from the matrix to provide a certain fill to the room,’ he continues. ‘This speaker will aid various applications, whether it’s cinema or theatre, it’s about making the hall more flexible.’

The speakers in the hall are able to act as a surround system or as fill speakers depending on the performance. ‘An Ashly router enables it to be used as fill for conferences or it can be surround channels from the Dolby processor for cinema.’

The multi-purpose hall

Built on a single level, the multi-purpose amphitheatre needed a system that could cope with a range of demands from live music to lectures as well as providing a cinema facility. With the range of activities planned for this space and therefore the flexibility required from the system, it took the longest time to get the design correct.

The hall can be split into three partitions – front (the main section), middle and back. The main partition has the large screen from Draper and a Sanyo PLC-XF46 projector, whereas the sections behind it have smaller projectors and screens from the same manufacturers. ‘The smaller sections have ceiling speakers and fill speakers on the sides with small subs for when it is a small room,’ explains Mr Khairallah. ‘When the whole area is open, the main system covers the large area.’ The small system is made up of eight Community Cloud-6 ceiling speakers with four L-Acoustics 8XT side fills and an SB15P sub. The large system consists of two L-R hangs of three L-Acoustics Arcs speakers with four SB118 subs and 12 112P stage monitors.

The room also features three Yamaha mixers (two OR2 96V2s with MY16 cards and one O1V 96V2 with MY8 card) which can be networked using the Aviom cards to connect over Cat-5. The matrix used was a Biamp Audioflex while all the video communication is through Extron – which again is over Cat-5 – and control comes from Crestron. The hall also features amps from L-Acoustics and Lab.Gruppen and a Sennheiser 3000 Series wireless mic system.

Despite the large variety of brands on show with this installation, Mr Khairallah insists there was no issue with getting the equipment to work together. ‘It all works well together. The only problems we faced were with the access points for the Crestron equipment. They put them over the ceiling and you don’t want to have a lot of grates in the false ceiling.’

The clientele that this development is aimed at means that the equipment has needed to be of the highest quality. ‘For all projects, what you can achieve with the available budget is always a consideration, but here there are all premium brands and all premium products so they have a very high-quality and very flexible system.’

The project at Qatar Cultural Village can be seen as a mirror for the development of Doha itself. It is a no-expense-spared installation with a demand for high-quality equipment that makes a statement that it is here to be taken seriously. When you add this to some of the other high-profile projects currently going on in Doha you can easily see why it is grabbing attention from A/V companies across the region.

www.siemens.com.qa

www.venuetech.ae