Yamaha Music Australia is excited to announce their latest Active Field Control (AFC) system installation has now been completed at the iconic TarraWarra Museum of Art.

The Museum launched their brand new multipurpose space, The Eva and Marc Besen Centre at the beginning of March, with four sold out performances from the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Academy of Music. Perched next to the existing museum on top a hill in the idyllic Yarra Valley, the Eva and Marc Besen Centre looks out over 1,235 acres of vineyard and picturesque countryside.

Inside the new facility, integrated into the room, resides a Yamaha Active Field Control system (AFC), which was specified knowing that the new centre would be used for various live music performances during its life. Being a multipurpose space where the museum will run classes and workshops as well as other non-performance activities, it was important that the room acoustics were appropriate for the variety of uses. Given this, an active acoustic enhancement system like the AFC was paramount in the space being able to perform its many varied roles properly and effectively.

Surrounding the audience area embedded in the walls are 10 Yamaha VXL series line array speakers which are used in the system to create the sense of length and breadth in the room, which aids in listener envelopment and performer support. Overhead and discreetly integrated into the architecturally defined ceiling are 32 Yamaha VXC6 loudspeakers which work together to create the required reverberance in the room to match the style and repertoire of the performance being held. Lastly there are eight Yamaha VXS10S subwoofers above the finished ceiling adding warmth and lushness to the sound, ensuring even the lowest octaves of music are represented just as well as the highest. The bespoke speaker system is fed signals from the dedicated AFC hardware processor that uses strategically placed microphones to capture the different aspects of the performance that are used for the enhancement. This comprises of eight directional microphones positioned near the performers, clearly capturing the instruments directly from the stage area, and an additional eight microphones positioned deeper in the room to capture the natural reverberance. The amount of each microphone as well as the type of processing used is carefully adjusted by our expert engineers to create specific acoustic signatures to suit the various performance types.

Use of the system is achieved through a simple touch screen interface, with the venue staff needing to only select one of six presets, preprogrammed into the AFC system, to instantly adjust the space to suit the type of performance. The mid-band reverberation time of the base room acoustic condition is around 1 second and can now be enhanced from 1.41 seconds up to 2.57 seconds through preset selection.

The use of an active acoustical enhancement system adds a significant advantage over traditional architectural acoustic adjustment methods. Not only do these systems allow for fast and easy adjustments, they also enable the achievement of a broad range of different acoustic conditions in the one physical space, often more affordably than using traditional fixed acoustic material.

For more information contact your local Yamaha representative:

Related Products: Active Field Control (AFC) VXL Series Line Array VXC Series Ceiling Speakers VXS Series Subwoofers