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Four Leopards per side cover the upper balcony areas
Big bang theory
A Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system has raised the bar high for performing arts in Indonesia. Richard Lawn visits the new Jakarta International Expo Theatre OPENING IN LATE 2019, THE NEWLY CONSTRUCTED theatre at the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) is currently the largest venue in Asia Pacific to be equipped with a Meyer Sound Constellation system. However, just 18 months prior to its opening, a serious blaze in the adjacent Niaga Building nearly ended the aspirations of supplier Mega Swara and systems integrator Kairos Multi Jaya. As smoke spewed into the sky from the building, theatre owner Prajna Murdaya watched on as 18 fire trucks were deployed to control the fire. While his prayers were answered, the damaged building warranted extensive reconstruction. Having started to lay the AV and networking conduits and cabling throughout the theatre, Kairos Multi Jaya was forced to return to site three months later to repeat its original works. Both Mega Swara and Kairos Multi Jaya have teamed up before to breathe electro-acoustic energy into other notable theatrical landmarks in Jakarta. Completed in 2015, the 1,300-seat Ciputra Artpreneur Theatre boasts an extensive Meyer Sound system comprising L-R Mica arrays, HP700 subwoofers and an extensive assortment of fills, including UPJ, UPA and UPM models. The Ciputra project drew several noted western experts together. Former associate director (operations) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Australian Philip Soden, was drafted in as the venue’s
technical and operations consultant. He was joined by Jakarta resident and operations expert Bernard Grover, who actually heralds from the Lone Star State of Texas, bringing with him 45 years of theatre, film and television production experience. At the request of the Berca Sportindo managing director Prajna Murdaya, the pair found themselves reunited for the JIExpo Theatre project. By his own admission, Grover was late to site when he took up the position of general manager in September 2019. “It is a little bit different when you are learning the setup rather than watching the system go in as you have planned,” he muses. “The size of the stage is on a par with Radio City Music Hall in New York. Although it can be trimmed back, the proscenium is in fact bigger, while the pit is one of the largest I have encountered. The auditorium design provides perfect sightlines from every seat, of which you can see all 2,500 when you stand at the rear wall of the stage.” Every nuance in theatre design has been calculated in precise detail. The walls and ceiling have been meticulously designed for pristine acoustics, providing absorption and limiting acoustic transmissions. The air conditioning vents are located below the seats, and the steel frame of the stalls is isolated, further dampening the mechanical noise of the building. Devoid of rising columns and other structural obstructions, all seats located in the three-tiered auditorium
The main PA comprises 12 Leopard arrays per side
48 PRO AVL ASIA September–October 2020
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