programming by Torpedo Factory Group
click here to download PDF _ TFG ROSL case study
Client Brief
The Royal Over-Seas League is a unique non-profit, private members organisation originally formed in 1910 with the collective aim of bringing people together from around the world to meet, socialise and foster an interest in the Commonwealth.
A long-standing and fervent supporter of the arts, the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) has over the last 65 years developed a diverse portfolio of activities in music, visual arts, and literature. ROSL ARTS regularly supports talented young professional artists and musicians through an annual music competition, as well as a programme of music and visual arts scholarships.
Our Solution
In providing performance opportunities for its prizewinning musicians, concerts and other events such as wedding receptions, banquets and conferences take place at the ROSL’s historic Princess Alexandra Hall, an impressive room with renowned natural acoustics.
However, the hall’s patchwork of audio-visual facilities had fallen behind and were in need of an upgrade, and consequently the in-house technical team under artistic director Geoff Parkin approached the Torpedo Factory Group to submit a design for a modern and fully integrated solution.
“The existing AV system at the ROSL hadn’t kept pace with the variety of events they wanted to host, and frequently looked to the rental side of our business to hire in additional equipment for special functions,” explained TFG project manager Phillip Palmer. “Thanks to this relationship and the need to augment their systems so often a permanent installation solution became viable, which opened up the opportunity for us to facilitate some unique features.”
The Benefits
Far from providing simple playback-only functionality, the audio implementation was complex due to the requirement for not only the reinforcement and recording of audio during speeches and presentations, but the very same solution also had to deliver recording and live streaming of intimate classical music performances to audiences right around the world.
The video side of the installation is based on an Epson EB-G7900U projector and Screenint projection surface, with Extron processing and matrix taking care of routing various signal feeds. Extron touch panels both at the lectern position and on the back wall allow configurations to be conveniently called up from a simple menu, while a key feature of the programming by TFG systems engineer Joao Barreto has been to make an extremely sophisticated procedure very simple and allow end-users to have complete control of the AV system.
What made this project unique was the capability to bring people together in a socially distanced world by live streaming performances to audiences around the globe, according to Barreto. “In addition, the ability to allocate the Tannoy QFlex digitally steered directionality to easily recalled control presets, together with the system’s on-board amplifiers, DSP, and 20 metre-plus coverage capability made QFlex ideal to accommodate the wide range of applications from speech to musical ensemble from a discrete fixed location,” he said.
Once installed, the system required ongoing care and adjustments through several trial performances in advance of going live. “We worked closely with the client to test the system in a variety of different scenarios, using their very helpful feedback throughout the process to make adjustments and fine tune its performance – which understandably had to be perfect particularly with regard to recording quality,” said Palmer.
What made this project unique was the capability to bring people together in a socially distanced world by live streaming peformances to audiences around the globe, together with the high level of system control and ease of use made possible by our detailed programming.
Joao Barreto, TFG Systems Engineer
