ATC 5.1 Surround System plays at the prestigious Cleveland Institute Of Music
CLEVELAND, OHIO: Two brand-new rooms were recently commissioned at the Cleveland Institute of Music: a recital hall and a state-of-the-art audio control room. Although the recital hall is not yet completed, the control room, considered a "multi-purpose music room" was recently finished. The room was designed by Dr. Peter D'Antonio, adjunct professor of acoustics at the Institute, while the installed system was developed by Bruce Egre, head of the conservatory's audio recording degree program with an ATC (Acoustic Transducer Company) 5.1 surround system as the cornerstone of the new sound system. The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is considered among the top five music conservatories in the United States, right along with Juilliard School of Music in New York and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
The two new rooms were added on to one of the existing buildings at the CIM, with the recital hall on the front and the control room on the back. "The new control room was designed and built from the ground up to be acoustically precise," states Egre. "We didn't have to try and fit a square peg into a round hole, so we were able to avoid some of the more common pitfalls of re-fitting an existing space. The institute was very supportive to both Peter and me on such important issues as room dimensions and ceiling height." Tie lines from the Institute's concert hall, a small overdub room and the soon-to-be-completed recital hall feed into the control room.
When Egre and D'Antonio first learned of the plans to build new facilities at the conservatory, they felt that it would be a unique opportunity to make a statement. With the planned links to performance spaces in the complex, it was decided to focus on the control room and design a world-class facility for the school, based on the latest design theories and products. According to D'Antonio, "The first challenge was to orient the room in the available space in order to provide a symmetrical listening environment. Following this, we utilized our Room Sizer program to determine the optimal dimensional ratios for uniform modal response."
A number of RPG acoustical products were utilized in the design in order to minimize reflections, add absorption in specific areas, and diffuse wavefronts in others. Particular attention was paid to controlling the low-frequency response of the room. However, as D'Antonio points out, "We also had to take into account the fact that it is an educational space and needs to accommodate more people than a typical control room. This meant that we had to be very sensitive to the amount of real estate we used for low-frequency control."
To achieve a flat and extended low-frequency response, new Modex Plate resonators were used in all of the available dihedral wall intersections, where the pressure is high. These new devices consist of a damped 1 or 1.5 mm steel plate proprietarily bonded to a damping four-inch backing. The device operates using three mechanisms: the pistonic resonance of the mass/spring, system; damping of the plate bending modes; and porous absorption of the sound waves diffracting around the plate into the backing. The Modex Plate provides absorption from 50-500Hz.
Broadband absorption is also provided with a variant of the Modex Plates, in which one-inch of the backing is moved to the face of the metal plate. The LF Modex Plates were used in the rear of the room and on the upper front wall areas, and then the broadband version was used directly behind the Left/Center/Right loudspeakers.
The low-end is additionally controlled by utilizing four in phase ATC SCM.1/15 subwoofers located at a quarter of the distance from adjacent walls. This unique placement prevents modes below the crossover from being energized. In addition to these low-frequency approaches, a four-inch deep pit roughly 6.5' x 10' was located at the first bounce position of the Left/Center/Right speakers to the listening position. The pit was filled with Modex Broadbands to control the interference caused by this floor reflection when it combines with the direct sound. The pit was covered with carpeting and the console was mounted on rails that spanned the pit. According to D'Antonio, "Every approach that is currently known has been applied to this control room with the goal of an extended and flat low-frequency response."
The loudspeaker system received special attention as well, with the benefit of relationships between D'Antonio, Egre and Jack Renner formerly of Telarc. Egre points out that, "we benefited from research already done by Jack Renner at Telarc. When they decided they needed new monitor speakers, they chose ATC. We felt that if Telarc chose them, then they would be the most transparent speakers available."
For the CIM multi-purpose control room, the ATC SCM150 ASL speakers were set up in a surround configuration. According to Egre, "When we conceived this as the ideal room, we felt that ATC would be an important part of that. Not only are the speakers excellent, we have received outstanding support from ATC." Additionally, another school across the street from the CIM, Case Western Reserve University, owns the smaller ATC SCM50 ASL speakers for their own recording facility, where Egre is also an instructor.
Along with running the recording degree program at the Cleveland Institute, Egre also owns Azica Records, his own small label for classical and jazz recordings. However, several unique aspects of this installation merit mention. "Because the new control room is part of an educational facility, it must be versatile. And although applicants must submit to a performance audition to be admitted into the recording program, the curriculum is not limited to classical or acoustic music." However, the emphasis, as Egre puts it, "is on the fundamentals of microphone techniques. We feel that if a student can become adept at recording a piece for violin and piano, one of the most challenging types of recordings, that student will then learn to hear nuances in other types of recording such as with guitar amps or drums."
The ATC SCM150 ASL loudspeaker is an active three-way system incorporating an ATC designed and built 15-inch Super Linear (SL) woofer, an ATC design and built three-inch mid dome, wave guide loaded, plus a one-inch high power wave guide loaded dome tweeter. The drivers are powered with ATC's own proprietary amplifier package with 200WRMS for the lows, 100WRMS for the mids and 50WRMS for the highs all in one package installed inside the speaker.
The ATC SCM0.1/15 ASL subwoofer is one of the lowest distortion subwoofers on the market and incorporates a 1000WRMS-driven proprietary 15-inch ATC SL driver. The woofer is floor loaded to provide ideal coupling with any room. The ATC electronics/power-pack offers selectable low-pass filters at 2kHz, 180Hz, 120Hz, 90Hz, 70Hz and 50Hz plus a phase invert switch. The ATC sub system is flat to 28Hz.
ATC's drivers are manufactured in-house to exacting tolerances and are legendary for their many design innovations, such as the innovative SL magnet system and the company's renowned Soft Dome mid-range driver, which achieves exceptionally broad and even dispersion to produce a flat response anywhere in the room. Situated in Aston Down in rural Gloucestershire, England, ATC was established in London in 1974 by acoustics engineer and musician, Bill Woodman.
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