Hypercube: innovation for the nation utilizing d&b

While Dmitry Medvedev was still President of Russia he implemented the building of a new research and innovation hub Skolkovo, "The intention was to sow the seeds of a Silicon Valley right here in Moscow," explained Alexander Minkov of ARMO-GROUP, the company charged with developing this project to resolution. "Part of that development is Hypercube, the first building of the 'Innograd'; that's Russian for 'city of innovations'."

Very much in the modern vernacular style, Hypercube is an imposing concrete and glass edifice housing a main conference hall supported by several meeting rooms. "We were charged with implementing the most innovative state of the art technologies within the centre," continued Alexander Minkov, "and we spent considerable time researching a decision for the best quality and reliability in the aspects of modern conference audio systems." The result of this careful research led to the choice of d&b audiotechnik equipment. Thereafter ARMO decided to implement the project with ARIS, the d&b audiotechnik distributor for the whole of Russia, "And for clear reasons. This company has a good reputation for support, and profound expertise in the technologies required," said Alexander Minkov.

Alexander Soloukhin, head of the Integrated Solutions department led the project from the ARIS side. "This was a difficult acoustic environment, plus it was envisaged that the conference room would be used in three modes: for conference with simultaneous translation for two hundred delegates, for educational purposes with full AV facilities and with all the seating removed, for music festivals."

The room was modelled extensively using d&b ArrayCalc simulation software before determining a system based on Q-Series with some elements from the T-Series. "The beauty of d&b for a project like this is the sheer choice of systems that all sing the same tune in terms of sound character. Thus we were able to put 4S loudspeakers and 12S subwoofers from the d&b White range into the meeting rooms and network them over d&b R1 Remote control software to the main system if required. For the conference room Q-Series with it's narrower than normal seventy five degrees horizontal dispersion was an ideal line array to fit the room requirements, with T10 laid horizontal on the stage front able to pull the sound image down with the Haas effect. The implementation of Q-SUBs floor mounted, makes for a potent system. There are six subwoofers a side in CSA cardioid mode which helps a great deal in a largely glass walled room. The cabling is built in, so the subs can be removed or deployed easily depending upon usage."

ARMO and ARIS provided a full turnkey system solution, including microphones, a simultaneous translation system, and mixing consoles. "This was a great partnership for us," concluded Alexander Minkov. "Together we made the system design, produced all the required project documentation to satisfy the State's compliance authorities, supplied and installed all the equipment and then implemented a full training program for the house technicians that will use it. If all the other developments within the Innograd match up to Hypercube we are well on the way to realising Mr Medvedev's dream."