Landmark concert hall stays with d&b.

Designed largely with acoustics in mind, the Concertgebouw Brugge opened its doors in 2002, just in time to commence the Belgian city’s stint as Capital of European Culture. Since it’s opening the venue has attracted upwards of 150.000 visitors a year.

d&b partner Amptec and local integrator PVL Sound & Light originally installed a d&b sound system based on the Q and C-Series, which served the hall well for the best part of 18 years.

In 2019 the concert hall decided to upgrade, relying on Amptec’s expertise to once again come up with a suitable audio solution that would incorporate the latest digital and audio technologies available to improve the sound experience across the entire audience area without compromising the simplicity of use.

“Speech intelligibility was a crucial factor for us because next to music we also deliver conferences, comedy shows, speeches and so forth. We also wanted to achieve an equal coverage across the whole auditorium” says Audio Engineer at Concertgebouw, Mattias Debrabandere.

In addition to the above brief, the venue also asked to repurpose parts of their old PA, while freeing up the stage as much as possible.

Taking all these requests into account Amptec designed a sound system based around a d&b Y-Series line array with a flown xS-SUB array, V point sources as front fills and E-Series speakers as balcony delays.

An R90 touch screen remote control provides intuitive usability, supplying the venue with presets for pre-defined performance scenarios, making changeovers straight forward and efficient. Parts of the old system have been adapted for a smaller performance space used for chamber music, extending the life of the venue’s initial investment and complying with their sustainability program.