When one of the UK's premier concert halls elected to upgrade its technical facilities, it chose Orbital Sound as its preferred partner. Located in Croydon, south London, the Fairfield Halls arts complex is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with its Concert Hall ranked as one of the very best orchestral performance spaces in Europe. With an acoustic quality particular favoured by chamber orchestras, it has been the venue for many classical recordings and, although famous for its orchestral events, the Concert Hall has hosted a varied programme of musical styles and events since the early 1960s – from rock bands to stand-up comedy.

The Fairfield Halls complex comprises three interlinked venues: the 1800-seat Concert Hall, the 750-seat Ashcroft Theatre, and the multi-purpose Arnhem Gallery that can accommodate up to 500 people. Forming the first part of the technical upgrade, Orbital has installed a new sound reinforcement system into the Concert Hall, with the principal components comprising d&b audiotechnik Q1 line arrays, augmented by B4 27A cardioid subs, and a Yamaha M7CL console with DME64 mix engine. The Q1 array is complemented by a T-series centre-fill cluster, using three Ti10L d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers,

The three-venue complex is managed by Fairfield (Croydon) Ltd, a registered charity, and the company recognised the need to improve its technical facilities, particularly regarding sound reinforcement throughout the site – to attract the larger tours and top-line promoters, and to deliver better results for its audiences. The current work on the site represents Phase 2 of a long-term refurbishment and improvement programme, scheduled across some 5 years and entailing a total budget of around £27 million. Starting in 2010, the programme's first phase saw improvements to the venue's Foyer area, including a dynamic new ceiling design, with colour-change lighting, and new décor.

Simon Thomsett, CEO of Fairfield Halls (Croydon) Ltd, explained the background to the refurbishment programme:
"Our Concert Hall has a long and well-proven heritage. Its acoustic quality is up there with the best – acknowledged as one of the finest in the UK – with its design benefitting from lessons learnt at other mid-20th century venues such as the Royal Festival Hall. So we have this concert hall with a great acoustic, but in terms of rock and pop, and even stand-up comedy, in order to get the top-line shows and tours we needed higher quality sound reinforcement, with more consistent coverage throughout the auditorium. We had reached the point where we were spending upwards of £1000 per performance to enhance our facilities by hiring in extra gear and manpower. That was not acceptable. With the new system, we now have a first-class amplified hall. Modern audiences expect high-quality sound and now at last we can provide it, with this new installation greatly enhancing the venue's flexibility for all types of performance, and giving us premier-league status.

A further positive is that with the new system going into the hall, our other venues are receiving benefit from the knock-on effect. For example, the Arnhem Gallery is hosting STAND!, our standing-room gig space that has recently launched a monthly live-music programme, featuring new acts as well as established bands."


As the prime focus of the refurbishment's Phase 2, the Concert Hall's new sound reinforcement system is enabling much of the outgoing equipment to be redeployed, to improve the audio performance in other spaces within the complex. Following a kind of domino effect, the original mono Meyer Sound system from the Concert Hall – installed in the late 1980s – was shipped to Orbital for a revamp, and re-installed in a distributed-sound configuration in the Ashcroft Theatre, augmented by new Meyer UPM point-source loudspeakers and USW subs. Similarly, the d&b audiotechnik system originally installed in the Ashcroft, and based around C7 loudspeakers, has been reconfigured as demountable system – primarily for events in the Arnhem Gallery, but capable of deployment anywhere in the complex according to demand.

Chris Whybrow, Technical Manager at Fairfield Halls, commented:
"Our ethos with this project was to re-use as much of our existing equipment and technical infrastructure as was feasible. We have managed to retain the analogue infrastructure, for example, re-terminating cables and updating patchbays where necessary, but keeping the analogue cabling itself pretty much intact. It didn't need replacing, and there's no point in spending valuable budget where it's not required. The guys at Orbital took this approach on board from the very start, and have worked hard to help give us the best possible results within our budget, and only recommending new equipment where absolutely necessary."

With the existing analogue cabling being re-used, the infrastructure aspects of the installation focused on the digital requirements of the Yamaha console and its associated EtherSound network, as well as the d&b Remote network for controlling and monitoring the loudspeaker systems. Orbital's David Bartholomeusz was responsible for the network system design, and was on site throughout the project to oversee the entire installation.

- Concert Hall Configuration
The design brief for the Concert Hall system had to address criticisms of sound quality and intelligibility that the venue had received, particularly regarding the balcony areas, and had to ensure its capability of handling the broadest range of performances – from stand-up comedy to rock tours.

The inherent flexibility and inter-range compatibility of d&b audiotechnik speakers put this brand at the top of the client's list, with the main stereo system specified with ten Q1 enclosures in each of the left and right hangs, backed up by four B4-27A SUBS per side, with the latter hung behind the left and right arrays, to avoid any additional line-of-sight intrusion. Given the hard wooden floor of the completely open stage area, with no proscenium, it was important to keep sound off the stage to minimise unwanted reflections, and therefore contribute to the overall intelligibility. This resulted in the choice of the d&b B4 cardioid subs, to achieve a reduction of around 10dB of rear-radiated low frequency energy. A further pair of d&b B2 SUBS was also supplied, and these can be wheeled out to provide additional LF capacity when required.

To address the intelligibility issues of the outgoing system, it was felt imperative to incorporate sufficient fill coverage throughout all parts of the auditorium, and to that end the Choir area is served by five d&b E6 speakers, with a further six E6 units providing Front fills. The Concert Hall's Royal Box is also fitted with two E6 speakers, while the remaining boxes – four per side above the auditorium – are each installed with one 5S speaker from d&b's White Range. D12 amplifiers from d&b power the main system and subs, with d&b D6 amps driving the remainder.

Delay speakers feature in the new design, with four d&b E8 units being used for both the Balcony and Under Balcony delays, as Chris Whybrow explains:
"We can now offer world-class sound quality to our audiences, with consistent coverage throughout the Hall – the sound maintains its integrity all the way to the back, removing the prime area of criticism that we previously experienced. The audible quality from the loudspeaker systems is being perfectly complemented by the flexibility of the Yamaha M7CL and DME64 combination. We benefit from its full capacity for the larger acts and shows, while smaller acts, such as stand-up, don't necessarily require the M7CL control surface, and so an in-house technician can control what a comedian needs from a DME remote panel side of stage. Similarly, visiting sound engineers can patch straight into the DME, without necessarily using the control surface, but it's there if required. For example, EQ and other settings can be downloaded direct to the DME, and this is hugely convenient, especially for tours – no-one else really does this as well as Yamaha!"