Photo © Marcus Ginns
Since the Royal Albert Hall’s opening in 1871, the world’s leading artists have flocked the venue to have a chance at performing on the world-renowned stage. Now, fifty years on since the installation of the iconic acoustic ‘mushrooms’, the Hall has undergone its biggest improvement to the auditoriums sound.
The new system features the first-ever circle, gallery and box speakers. This improvement ensures the sound can travel closer to all seats in the house, allowing for an improved audio experience for the entire audience
SFL were in charge of the £2 million, 6-month project, which used 465 individual speakers and 15,291m (that’s 4 tonnes) of cable, the latter of which was Van Damme Cable, primarily supplied by VDC Trading, for the world’s largest loudspeaker installation in a single room.
VDC Trading maintain a successful working relationship with long standing customer, SFL. Going back around 30 years, VDC and SFL having worked together on a number of high-profile hire and installation jobs often featuring Van Damme cable throughout.
The Royal Albert Hall work was no different, with SFL enlisting VDC to provide a host of Van Damme cable, to fulfil the jobs extensive requirements. All elements of speaker, line level, audio and data cable were provided by VDC Trading. This included custom length Van Damme socapex terminated 16x4mm and 18×2.5mm speaker cables and boxes, that feed into the line arrays and d&b speaker system. VDC also provided Van Damme single microphone, instrument and Cat6A data cabling for the venue.
With a recent programme of events including acts that range from the London Symphony Orchestra to Rudimental, Kasabian to Mary Poppins and ballet to boxing, Van Damme are proud to have been part of such a prestigious project, providing the cable essential to connect together one of the most famous sound systems in the world.
Steve Jones of d&b audiotechnik commented: “The Royal Albert Hall presents a sound system design with some of the most unique geometry in the world – it was essential that the final audio system design delivered a significant improvement to the amplified sound in this venue. Using the latest 3D modelling and simulation techniques from leading acousticians Sandy Brown, we were able to pinpoint exactly how, where and what speakers we needed to install, maximising the clarity, intelligibility and musicality that the audience expect from a world class venue. Audiences can now expect a level of audio quality and consistency across all seats which was never before been achievable.”