Turbosound installations

Wembley Conference Centre, UK

Venue: Wembley Conference Centre
Location:London, UK
Venue-type: Conference Centre
Loudspeaker system:
12 x Floodlight trapezoidal TFL-760Ht
3 x Floodlight skeleton TFL-760Hs
12 x TSW-718 bass enclosures
24 x HiLight THL-4
2 x LMS-700 controllers

One of the UK's largest conference and exhibition centres has chosen a new Turbosound house system for its premier auditorium. After a thorough 4-way competitive tender, the team at the Wembley Conference & Exhibition Centre selected a Floodlight system, with HiLight for additional support.

The venue is part of the Wembley Stadium complex, recognisable all over the world as the home of the top British sporting and entertainment events. The large site, in north London, houses the Stadium, the 12,000 seater Arena and the Conference and Exhibition Centre.

Within the circular Conference centre, the Grand Hall is an extremely well-appointed all-seat auditorium with a capacity of 2,650. In fact, the Hall handles events of every kind, not just conferences - there are concerts, particularly of a specialist nature such as Irish folk and Asian music, there are AGMs, cookery roadshows, and sporting competitions, such as the national squash and snooker championships.

The technical team at Wembley, led by Steve Lee, had been pressing for a new sound system since 1992, and, when the go-ahead was given in the autumn of last year, they prepared a fair and very flexible brief, assisted by acoustical consultants Travers Morgan. Four proposals from different installation companies were received, based on four top loudspeaker systems - Community, Electrovoice, JBL and Turbosound.

Unusually, Wembley's brief did not specify how the sound system should be designed. Jim Griffiths of Travers Morgan explained that "we wanted to allow the installers and the system manufacturers the maximum flexibility, so we just asked them to tell us how they would provide proper coverage of the auditorium using their products. Because there are so many variations between brands when it comes to performance, we didn't want to restrict the installers by specifying a distributed system or a front-of-house system."

Each side, there are six trapezoidal Floodlight TFL-760Ht, with three TSW-718 bass bins at the top of the 3-wide, 3-deep cluster. The 3 cabinets on the inside of each cluster can be turned off, depending on the staging arrangements.

3 more bass cabinets are on each side of the stage, which can be added to the system for a full concert rig. Also two HiLight THL-4s can be added to these stacks. In film mode, the HiLight cabinets can be mounted on a rostrum dead-centre behind the screen; in stage mode, they are used for infill. At the front of the lighting grid, three skeleton Floodlights provide delay.

Two LMS-700 speaker management systems are in control, and the Wembley operators are particularly pleased with these. With tight turnarounds between shows, they are relieved that they no longer have to worry about pre-programming. Jim Griffiths, looking after the health and safety concerns, has installed a limiter on the system to ensure that there is always a safe operating level, capped at 102dB.

	Wembley Conference Centre, UK

	Venue: Wembley Conference Centre Location:London, UK Venue-type: Conference Centre Loudspeaker system: 12 x Floodlight trapezoidal TFL-760Ht 3 x Floodlight skeleton TFL-760Hs 12 x TSW-718 bass enclosures 24 x HiLight THL-4 2 x LMS-700 controllers

	One of the UK's largest conference and exhibition centres has chosen a new Turbosound house system for its premier auditorium. After a thorough 4-way competitive tender, the team at the Wembley Conference & Exhibition Centre selected a Floodlight system, with HiLight for additional support. The venue is part of the Wembley Stadium complex, recognisable all over the world as the home of the top British sporting and entertainment events. The large site, in north London, houses the Stadium, the 12,000 seater Arena and the Conference and Exhibition Centre. Within the circular Conference centre, the Grand Hall is an extremely well-appointed all-seat auditorium with a capacity of 2,650. In fact, the Hall handles events of every kind, not just conferences - there are concerts, particularly of a specialist nature such as Irish folk and Asian music, there are AGMs, cookery roadshows, and sporting competitions, such as the national squash and snooker championships. The technical team at Wembley, led by Steve Lee, had been pressing for a new sound system since 1992, and, when the go-ahead was given in the autumn of last year, they prepared a fair and very flexible brief, assisted by acoustical consultants Travers Morgan. Four proposals from different installation companies were received, based on four top loudspeaker systems - Community, Electrovoice, JBL and Turbosound. Unusually, Wembley's brief did not specify how the sound system should be designed. Jim Griffiths of Travers Morgan explained that "we wanted to allow the installers and the system manufacturers the maximum flexibility, so we just asked them to tell us how they would provide proper coverage of the auditorium using their products. Because there are so many variations between brands when it comes to performance, we didn't want to restrict the installers by specifying a distributed system or a front-of-house system." Each side, there are six trapezoidal Floodlight TFL-760Ht, with three TSW-718 bass bins at the top of the 3-wide, 3-deep cluster. The 3 cabinets on the inside of each cluster can be turned off, depending on the staging arrangements. 3 more bass cabinets are on each side of the stage, which can be added to the system for a full concert rig. Also two HiLight THL-4s can be added to these stacks. In film mode, the HiLight cabinets can be mounted on a rostrum dead-centre behind the screen; in stage mode, they are used for infill. At the front of the lighting grid, three skeleton Floodlights provide delay. Two LMS-700 speaker management systems are in control, and the Wembley operators are particularly pleased with these. With tight turnarounds between shows, they are relieved that they no longer have to worry about pre-programming. Jim Griffiths, looking after the health and safety concerns, has installed a limiter on the system to ensure that there is always a safe operating level, capped at 102dB.