Located in the city centre of Ipswich, a fast-growing regional centre west of Brisbane, the Ipswich Civic Centre (ICC) has evolved into a flourishing combination of premier entertainment venue and community-focused function centre. The 800-seat George Hogg auditorium is normally busy year-round, presenting a wide range of local, national and international artists and events.
Technically, the ICC and its dedicated production crew have always punched well above their weight, so the latest upgrade aimed to give the centre a loudspeaker system to match any in the top league of performing arts venues. After careful consideration of the production demands, a detailed tender was issued with a clear focus on an even SPL coverage to every audience seat along with top quality sound that would meet the stringent requirements of touring artists.
“We do support international acts here,” commented Nicholas Burke, ICC Theatre and Production Supervisor, “so we needed a rider-capable PA with high output coverage across the entire room, which certainly narrowed our field of selection.”
The winning bid, submitted by Brisbane Sound Group, was based around an L-Acoustics Kiva II system. Australian distributor Jands modelled the auditorium using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision 3D sound design software which demonstrated clearly how the system would meet the tight specification for frequency response and coverage, while also satisfying the stringent mechanical requirements for truss loading and clear sightlines.
“The pattern control which produced the coverage we needed was very important. And then the low profile of the speakers, compared to some of the others on offer, really fit the bill,” Burke noted.
Even under prevailing Covid restrictions, the system installation and commissioning by Brisbane Sound Group went seamlessly with installation and commissioning completed in just two days. “The L-Acoustics product, being a turnkey package, always makes the installation and the design aspect easy and free-flowing,” explained Rob Bird, head of Pro Audio for Brisbane Sound Group. “It’s a really easy system for us to put in, time after time, and get consistently good results.”
The proposal included flown Kiva II arrays, flown and floor mounted subs, delay speakers and front fills along with an L-Acoustics processor and amplifier package.
The system comprises of:
• Left and right hangs of eleven L-Acoustics Kiva II speakers co-located with three SB15m subwoofers per side
• Four KS21 compact subwoofers (floor-mounted two per side)
• Four L-Acoustics 5XT ultra-compact coaxial speakers as delayed under-balcony fills, and another six 5XTs built-in beneath the stage as front fills
• One L-Acoustics P1 Processor and seven LA4X amplified controllers located in the backstage rack
The sound quality of the new speakers has not only delighted audiences but also garnered consistently great feedback from visiting artists. “In the past, we’ve had a high number of international and headline acts who were bringing their own PA,” Burke revealed. “Now, in the period we’ve had the system in, everybody so far has decided to use the house PA. L-Acoustics has certainly been an easy tick off for acts. They see the brand, they see the model, they’re happy to use it!”
