A recent installation in the most inhospitable of conditions - a ski hut high on the mountains near Obergurgel in Austria - has provided a thorough testing for Yamaha’s digital audio products.
The Nederhütte is an extremely popular venue for skiers to congregate and enjoy a break from the rigours of the slopes with a bite of raclette and a glass of warm glüh wine. But what proprietor Rudi Gamper really wanted was to give his customers a top quality music experience and he approached Austria’s largest music dealer Klangfarbe GesmbH to provide it for him.
“As a very competent musician in his own right Herr Gamper has good technical knowledge and was able to provide his own specification,” said Markus Hammerschmid of Klangfarbe who project managed and installed all the sound technology at the hütte. “He specified d&b speaker systems and all Yamaha digital control.”
This is no simple ski hut and the audio system is a complex installation, Gamper has three main areas for sound reinforcement, an outdoor terrace; the Umbrella Bar - a sort of outdoor/indoor experience where skiers can shelter within a fully glass walled enclosure and watch their friends on the slopes; and indoors a live concert hall where on many an evening Herr Gamper often performs himself, on a Yamaha Tyros keyboard of course.
“To control these three PA systems, and to enable a discrete zone control over the whole establishment Yamaha DME-64s have been used to provide a digital matrix,” explained Hammerschmid. “Herr Gamper has provided the main stage with enough musical equipment to produce as many as 30 inputs to the Yamaha DM2000 mixing desk, plus there are multiple inputs from MP3 and CD players. With seven stereo sound zones within the three PA’s to take these multiple feeds, such a solid and reliable matrix system was essential, only the DME matrix can manage such a set-up. This is a very popular and busy establishment so Herr Gamper wanted a simple interface for waiters or barmen to vary level in the three areas. But he also wanted separate EQ, gain, delay, limiters, and other control parameters on each channel - Naturally he wanted his bar staff to have access only to level via simple fader panels.”
A laptop PC is connected to the DM2000, which in turn addresses the DME’s and the digital D12 amplifiers from d&b (these have their own proprietary remote control system Rope C, which is used to adjust such parameters as limits and delays). Using a wireless system and tablet interface Hammerschmid and Gamper were able to walk through the various areas of the Nederhütte and fine tune the system; then by careful programming of the DME’s they provided strictly limited system access to the bar staff via their fader panels.
“The new system is proving very popular with customers, you only have to visit the Obergurgel skiers On-line forum to see that,” said Hammerschmid, “and Herr Gamper is extremely pleased.”
Klangfarbe AG is the largest music equipment supplier in Austria: Visit www.Klangfarbe.com for more information
www.obergurgl.com/index.html?_fm=1_101&_hm=1&_sm=108 and check Hüttensafari for the forum
