After just 33 months of construction, Vienna is the richer for a new landmark. This summer, the 75 meter high UNIQA tower became the ultra-modern workplace for more than 1,000 UNIQA employees. The inviting design of the ground floor, the generous glazing in the foyer and the public areas in the lower floors have made the new UNIQA tower into a potential "hot spot" for the city of Vienna.
The insurance firm has leased a part of the ground floor to the gastronomy agency DO&CO.
In providing this top event venue for up to 1,000 guests in the very heart of Vienna, DO&CO has set new standards.
The Austrian company Klangfarbe, under the management of Markus Hammer-schmid, was given responsibility for installing the sound engineering equipment.
Klangfarbe – Austria's biggest music company – has been in existence for 20 years. In addition to a wide range of instrumental, studio, PA and lighting equipment, the company, which has a 35-strong workforce, also has an installation planning department called Klangplan. This audio-visual consulting group of Klangfarbe electronics GmbH deals with planning which requires extensive know-how and offers tailor-made solutions for the industrial electronics, acoustics, sound engineering and multimedia and lighting technology sectors. With its close links to the music business, the company has access to the entire audio market and this enables it to operate quite independently of the manufacturers.
Klangfarbe installs systems in airports, railway stations, public buildings, and realizes multimedia projects such as the UNIQA tower.
On 25 June 2004, the big day had arrived. In the new UNIQA tower, the latest and most modern events centre, the "Platinum Vienna" was officially opened. A modern, multi-functional event centre had been built on a 1,100 square metre area. Equipped with the latest "television-capable" technology and an innovative lighting and sound system, the new top event location offers a broad range of services available in modular form for events of varying sizes. The "Platinum Vienna" is an ideal venue for presentations, banquets, company and private parties and for cultural events such as readings and concerts.
The high technological demands were increased by the no less demanding adaptation to the architecture. A spatial simulation of the reverb time resulted in an acoustic prognosis which would not be easy to resolve, particularly in light of the curved glass roof and glass walls.
In order to make every possible recording and microphone source as well as the output configuration programmable and flexible for every conceivable event scenario, as quickly as possible to the highest possible standards and without enormous cabling costs, the equipment at the heart of this audio installation is a Yamaha PM1D console in a 48-channel configuration.
A specially produced collapsible mixing console and the option to forego side racks mean that the technical facilities can be temporarily moved, even through narrow doorways. The remote input/output box for the mixing console system was housed in a technical equipment room in the heart of the building. There are three different mixing console positions (technical equipment room, gallery, auditorium). From the technical equipment room, three audio multi-cores run under the auditorium floor through to slots where the audio signal can be picked up or fed in using multi-pin connectors. CD players and DAT recorders were installed as playback devices.
"Even during the preliminary talks, it became clear that a digital console would have to be used.
Moreover, the sound technician on site – who would have to deal with the lighting and video system – would have to be able to work as efficiently as possible.
Since we realised during the planning phase that all the cable ducting capacity would be fully utilised, the cable routing had to be used sparingly. We therefore decided to use a remote input/output box.
It was felt that three different mixing console positions were necessary. In order to save the technicians the job of constantly moving side racks, outboard equipment was to be used as little as possible. This meant that in addition to a compact console, we also needed a console which would incorporate as much of the necessary equipment as possible.
Since we had already used Yamaha digital consoles for several projects, and the price/benefit ratio is excellent, we decided in favour of the Yamaha PM1D. Moreover, all the effects, compressors and gates which come with the PM1D are of very high quality and are on a par with external devices.
Thanks to the remote input/output box made possible by flexible routing options and located in the core of the building in the immediate vicinity of the loudspeakers, it was possible to do without an audio matrix. In order to ensure reliable connectivity between the input/output box and the CS1D, a system multi-core was installed.
For the majority of events planned, we created presets which the technician can simply call up using the direct recall buttons. Even though the in-house technician does not have much experience in the field of audio technology, he quickly came to grips with the PM1D following a training course. He is delighted with the clear console layout. At the official opening which was recorded by TV stations, the audio technology system also received the highest of praise for the perfect, clear signal of the PM1D.
A further benefit is that the mixing console can simply be automatically switched to mute through the GPI port in the event of a fire alarm.
In order to simplify programming, a PC has been connected to the console to monitor and control the entire loudspeaker and wireless microphone system, among other things. With the many practical features and benefits of the PM1D, the realisation of all kinds of high-quality productions will not present any problems."
(Markus Hammerschmid)
