The Perelman Performing Arts Center—located at New York City’s World Trade Center site—is a 138-foot-tall, cube-shaped building designed by the architecture firm REX, led by founding principal Joshua Ramus. REX’s design, developed in collaboration with executive architect Davis Brody Bond, theater consultants Charcoalblue, and acousticians Threshold Acoustics, is conceived for an artistic program that will offer vast and varied events to serve New York’s extraordinarily diverse arts community. A d&b Soundscape system was selected to bring a more intimate experience that connects the stage and audience.
The plan to develop a cultural center at the new World Trade Center began 20 years ago, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor following 9/11. This goal included the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) as the cultural keystone and this past year, it came to fruition as NYC held its first public performance in September 2023.
Three principal venues–the John E. Zuccotti Theater (seating up to 450 people and known during the design phase as theater A), the Mike Nichols Theater (seating up to 250, theater B), and the Doris Duke Theater (seating up to 99, theater C) can used independently or by combining them. In all, the auditorium can transform into 10 different proportions that collectively adopt more than 60 stage-audience arrangements with capacities ranging from 90-950 seats, and with audience circulation and lobby areas varying to match.
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Charcoalblue was hired in 2013 as the theater consultants for the Perelman. Senior consultant Josh Loar joined on in 2021 and, as he recollected, “I have always held d&b products in very high esteem–to my ears they are one of the two topmost manufacturers of loudspeakers and processing for live audio in the world, and their speakers have a deserved reputation for musicality and clarity.”
Loar said the Perelman developed a programming brief looking to serve both a wide range of musical events (everything from chamber ensembles to fully amplified contemporary music), theater (straight plays and musicals), dance, opera, spoken word, and film. “In extensive conversations with the client, we developed a plan that focused on delivering a “kit of parts” system, which is to say a collection of equipment that can be repurposed in dozens of different configurations to suit different production needs. As such, we wanted to make sure that the Perelman had enough tools in its arsenal, and that those tools minimized model types, so that boxes not in use by one production could serve as spares for other productions. Additionally, because the Perelman is nearly endlessly reconfigurable, and they permitted approximately 64 different initial configurations, they needed speakers to accommodate traditional end-stage, in-the-round, and a host of other shapes.
“Our approach was centered on two basic ideas,” continued Loar. “First, we were to provide a stock set of configurations that act as a baseline for the venue–these are configurations that allow rental events or short-run events to select one of Perelman’s already-tuned configurations and run with it. And second, we wanted to incorporate Soundscape capabilities for full sound design flexibility in the venues.”
d&b Americas knew d&b Soundscape was the right fit. Per a spokesperson for the company, d&b’s Soundscape was designed for incredibly quick deployment (touring) in a new space every couple of days, without the complex tuning and setup that some of the immersive solutions require, so we felt like it would be at perfect fit. The Perelman having a near infinite number of possible configurations, ease of deployment was a must.
In developing iterations of the designs with the Perelman artistic team (who included a review panel of professional designers brought in to evaluate Charcoalblue’s work), they focused Soundscape capabilities on the B and C venues, with the idea of creating a “sound designer’s playground” where anyone could fully actuate sound in three dimensions via the powerful object-based panning system. The license is flexible, and can be used in theater A, but the idea of theater A was that it would (mostly) be a slightly more standard mixing environment, run in variations of stereo, LCR, or mono in default modes, or in totally custom modes for theatrical use.
While Soundscape systems typically require more loudspeaker positions than a traditional PA setup, the loudspeakers can often be smaller cabinets at each position, improving sightlines or even tucked away out of sight. Since both level and delay processing are independently utilized per loudspeaker position in real time, multiple loudspeakers are producing sound simultaneously to create accurate localization no matter where a listener is seated.
d&b En-Scene is the Soundscape software module for object-based signal management. This extends the basic matrix function of the DS100 Signal Engine with an object-based positioning tool for every input. In addition to the possibility of independent positioning and moving up to 64 sound objects, an algorithm-based control of up to 64 loudspeakers is provided, based on the loudspeaker positions and their assignment to function groups. It can enhance or build an acoustic environment, either indoor or outdoor, based on convolution of many impulse responses captured in acoustically renowned performance spaces ranging from chamber recital to large concert halls.
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Charcoalblue landed on a point-source system driven by Y10P, Y-SUB, 8S, and 44S loudspeakers mounted in a wide range of configurations. Further, they specified V-Series arrays and point sources paired with V-SUBs for end-stage and other array configurations. “We also designed some expanded systems, where the Perelman elected not to purchase all recommended units, but to hold the designs as reference for rentals when needed,” added Loar. “This includes SL-Series boxes (they bought SL-SUBs, but left SL tops for rental when needed), additional 44S boxes, and E-Series boxes. We also designed the lobby sound system, centered on E-Series (E8, E6, E12X-SUB), and a small kit of M4 and M6 stage monitors.”
"It is very exciting to have a full d&b system with V line arrays and extensive Y point sources while also having dedicated DS100’s and being able to utilize all that Soundscape has to offer," said Micah Zucker, lead audio PAC NYC. "During our opening season, we have switched configurations regularly and the flexibility Soundscape provides gives us the ability to pivot from one configuration to the next. Sometimes when we move between shows the PA configurations remain, but we change designers. When one designer wanted vocal delay matrixing, and the next designer wanted a LR and Sub system, having d&b products including Soundscape and the rest of their line has made the job of changing configurations quickly much easier and smoother. This also allows us to recall the settings the next time we return to a configuration.”
