Tehran’s Azadi Theater Benefits From A Versatile Audio Solution And Brings Its Supplier Further Concert Venue Projects In The Iranian Capital
Outline, the Brescia, Italy-based pioneer of adjustable directivity loudspeakers, has been an important player in the Middle East market for a number of years. One of the company’s latest success stories is Azadi, a six-floor, multi-room arts center in uptown Tehran with an overall seating capacity of 1,153. The top two floors of this building host the venue’s largest theater, which is designed primarily to fulfill the functions of a concert hall but which required an audio system suitable for the hosting of a very wide variety of events.
This view of the Azadi Theater’s stage shows how closely the main line-array hangs had to be mounted to the reflective side walls; the front-fill DVS12 enclosures can also be seen. demanded by the project were met by twin hangs of seven Outline mini-COMPASS self-powered, compact line-array modules, augmented by four of the company’s four LAB15SP single 15-inch subwoofers, also selfpowered. In practice, installer Masood Roostaei, supported by sound engineer Masood Moghadam, was obliged to position in the arrays in such a way that their horizontal dispersion could not be identical. As a result, asymmetric dispersion patterns were arranged in order to avoid reflections from the walls, which were of necessity very close to the arrays’ hanging points.
Outline’s technology made such design tweaking possible by allowing directivity to be adjusted between 60 and 150 degrees in the horizontal plane, with up to 16 different dispersion combinations possible. The result was even coverage from the main left-right setup— reportedly the first time such a feat has been achieved in Iran. The subwoofers, meanwhile, were well-suited to the project because of their compact size (each enclosure is just 43 cm high) and light weight (52kg apiece).
Further passive DVS enclosures are mounted under the theater’s balcony for use as delays to cover the rearmost seating. FOH system does not cover the whole auditorium, however. They are supplemented by four Outline DVS10 enclosures, which have been installed under the Azadi theater’s balcony, while two DVS12 enclosures are on frontfill duty. All the DVS enclosures are passive versions, being driven by Outline T44 amplifiers and processed by the company’s DSP Genius 26 unit.
Calibration and final testing were carried out after installation by Outline System Engineer Francesco Ferretti, who traveled from Italy to supervise the project, working in partnership with Hashemi Trading Design & Installation, the company’s exclusive distributor for Iran.
From start to finish, the process of acoustically treating the theater and fitting out the sound system took 10 months. The project concluded with an inauguration ceremony attended by Tehran’s Mayor, Mohammad Baqer Qalibat, and such is the acclaim which with the Azadi system has been received that Outline solutions have since been specified for three further concert venues in Tehran, all of which are scheduled for completion by the end of 2008.
