DALLAS, TX – The 2,200-seat Winspear Opera House is located in downtown Dallas near to numerous other performance venues, including the Wyly Theatre and Dallas’ Symphony’s Meyerson Auditorium, as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Theater Projects Consultants and acoustician Sound Space Design provided the audio design for the venue, home to the Dallas Opera.
The sound system, designed by Martin Van Dijk of Toronto-based Engineering Harmonics, is centered on left-right arrays of 12 Renkus-Heinz STLA/9R RHAON empowered loudspeakers that retract into the ceiling when not in use. Low-frequency reinforcement is provided by four Renkus-Heinz DR18-1 subwoofers on rolling dollies.
Renkus-Heinz PowerNet PN-Series loudspeakers provide additional coverage, with eight PN82/9 systems for over-balcony fill and two PN151/4 systems flown from the venue's 60-foot high ceiling. A separate speech system was also installed, using 10 Iconyx IC8-R and two IC16-R systems.
Not far away, Annette Strauss Square, which seats up to 2,400, gets used as an outdoor performance venue for concerts, theatrical and dance performances and festivals. “Particularly with an outdoor venue in a populated area, it’s important to be good neighbors,” noted Jeff Stephens, technical supervisor for the Winspear and Strauss Square. “We worked with the city to make sure the sound could be steered and focused toward the seating and away from the other buildings as much as possible. Having a rock concert right next to a symphony hall and an opera house could be problematic, and having it outside people’s homes would be even more so.”
The outdoor system, also designed by Van Dijk, employs left and right arrays of 10 STLA/9R boxes per side, along with six DR18-2 dual 18-inch subwoofers for low-frequency power. A ring of SG42 two-way powered loudspeakers acts as a delay fill. “We use the delay fill so we don’t have to drive the main PA quite as hard, which helps to keep the energy off the Meyerson,” said Stephens.
“We worked closely with the Opera on a performance of Don Giovanni at the Winspear, which was broadcast at Annette Strauss Square as an Opera Under the Stars event,” noted Stephens. “It was a huge success, and we got lots of compliments on how great and clear the sound was. It was particularly gratifying, being outdoors and right next to a highway. The system performed beyond our expectations.”
For more information, visit: www.renkus-heinz.com.
