NATURAL EVOLUTION

Located in Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, the Ferguson Center for the Arts is a world-class venue that has been visited by more than two million people since its opening in 2004. The facility plays host to an eclectic mix of talent ranging from headlining acts like Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Jay Leno, and Ziggy Marley all the way to Broadway shows, symphonies, student productions, lectures, and more.

From the roots of this first PA the system evolved as time progressed, continuing with the purchase of 20 TTL 31-A loudspeakers from RCF along with a pair of TTS 56-A 2 x 21” subs. Following the addition of another pair of TTS 56-As, and then the turning of the calendar to December 2021, the main room was upgraded to 24 RDNet-equipped, three-way TTL 55-A cabinets from RCF deployed at a rate of 12 per side. With 3500 watt, four-way amplification found onboard each of these active line array modules, the high-powered boxes are additionally loaded with six neodymium transducers (three 1.5” compression drivers, a 10” midrange, and pair of 12” woofers) and 96 KHz of 32-bit DSP processing.

As time passed with the house’s original PA still in place, Kelly found that many touring acts found it a bit undersized. “What impressed me about the TTL 55-A cabinets was that they are double-12s,” he relates. “As a result, even at low volumes you can feel the impact of our new, upgraded system. My take has always been that when you have ample headroom and power at hand it tends to keep engineers mixing at quieter levels, and that’s a valuable attribute in a theatre of our size. These double-12s are mounted in a clam shell band-pass loading configuration as well, and that makes the box actually not much ‘bigger’ horizontally than most others it competes with. Bottom line, the visual impact isn’t huge at all, but the physical impact is.”

Combining modeling and prediction done with Rational Acoustics’ Smaart v8 and a FLUX:: Pure Analyzer, as well as good old-fashioned critical listening techniques, Kelly, with the aid of RCF’s Tarik Solangi and Oscar Mora, tuned the upgraded system while using RDNet to examine and shape, characteristics, and performance of the RCF boxes individually and in groups. Used in conjunction with RDNet, FiRPHASE, RCF’s proprietary finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, utilized an accurate measurement of each loudspeaker’s phase to correct both phase and amplitude (if necessary) while taking into account the physical characteristics of the transducers as well as the resonances and cancellations produced by the cabinets themselves.

“We are undergoing part of a natural, continuous evolution that strives to transform the way audiences hear what comes from the stage in a fashion that keeps getting better and better.”

Kelly provides a standard—or what he calls benchmark tuning for all his guests. He keeps that simple then provides a tablet for accessing either RDNet or the room’s Lake LM26 and LM44 processing, which remains part of the equation for signal routing. Whatever tunings are set, a touch of a button returns the rig to a default setting at the end of the night.

Onstage monitoring currently relies upon a combination of RCF’s TT 20-CXA 2 x 8” and TT 45-CXA 2 x 10” wedges. IEMs from Shure include six PSM 1000 P10T transmitters and 13 P10T beltpacks. Drawing once again from its large collection of in-house inventory, Kelly’s input list is peppered with a variety of mics including a DPA d:facto II, Shure KSM8, KSM9, and SM58 transducers, and an assortment of DPA lavalier and headset mics.

“I would never suggest that someone in a military aircraft might be in a backseat testing their jamming equipment overhead right during a show,” Kelly says, still expressing his jocular side. “But sometimes you just might believe it. Shure’s Wireless Workbench is vital to our RF efforts, and as far as antennas go we have a paddle located downstage and an omnidirectional upstage. This combination provides high gain and a high surface area in terms of reception, and both are located 15 feet in the air while still keeping sight lines clear.”

Prior to the recently completed sonic upgrade that introduced a new PA based around RCF’s TTL 55-A line array modules at the Ferguson Center for the Arts, the venue logged a little over ten years with its predecessor, another RCF rig using smaller two-way loudspeakers that were also products of the Italian company’s TTL lineup.

“When Ketch called me shortly before COVID hit and said he wanted to move up to a bigger system in the theatre, I was more than happy to go do a demo of our 55 box,” recalls RCF USA VP of Sales and Marketing Tarik Solangi. “It was one of those they listened to it and loved it presentations, and then all of a sudden the pandemic shut everything down and we were left in limbo.”

Needless to say, when the virus finally began losing its grip and the world began to unmask, the Ferguson Center picked up the pieces of its upgrade plan and moved forward, sealing the deal and further cementing a relationship with RCF now in its second decade.

The Ferguson Center’s current collection of TTL 55-A components was tuned by RCF’s Oscar Mora to be deployed in a standard left-right/sub configuration using the manufacturer’s RDNet network and control platform, which provides for array and zone grouping, monitoring, and an ability to make high-pass, EQ, gain, and delay adjustments on individual loudspeakers. Along with the theatre’s standard configuration, Mora also created presets within the RDNet software enabling the PA to be quickly changed into an end-fire configuration or gradient end-fire arrangement.

“While we’ve become well-known for our HDL Series loudspeakers,” Solangi adds, “this installation shines a spotlight on our flagship TT+ Series, which is expressly designed for live concerts, sports events, speech reinforcement, performing arts centers like Ferguson, and other high-end applications. We have some interesting plans to expand the product group in the very near future, but for now we couldn’t be happier to continue our relationship with everyone here at the Ferguson Center. It’s a positive association that anyone in this industry would be rightly proud of.”