Yamaha Hosts Demonstration Evening at First European AFC3 Installation
Following the installation of the first Yamaha AFC3 Active Field Control system in a European venue, the company co-hosted an open evening for acousticians and technicians to demonstrate how its advanced technology can transform the acoustics of a space.
AFC3 is an acoustic conditioning system which adjusts and enhances the acoustic characteristics of a space, while preserving its natural features. It achieves this by creating feedback loops using microphones and speakers located in the reverberant field of the room to ‘recycle’ the reverberant energy, thus extending the reverb time.
The first European AFC3 installation is at Gäddviken Rehearsal Hall, the rehearsal facility for Stockholm’s Royal Opera. Its 625m2 floor area and 17m ceiling height provides enough space to accommodate the Opera’s orchestra, choir, soloists and complete stage sets. However, being a very different space to the city’s Royal Opera House, the acoustics were proving problematical for the musicians.
Lars-Göran Ehn, the Royal Swedish Opera’s Senior Sound Engineer, found the solution in AFC3. Combined with movable SMT S-wing diffuser panels AFC3 has transformed the space from, as Lars says, “A room considered pointless for our musicians to rehearse in, into a hall where they now enjoy making music. In short: it used to be really bad, but now it's really good.”
The open evening at Gäddviken Rehearsal Hall brought together around 75 consultants and acousticians from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Sharing their experience and knowledge of the system’s design, installation and commissioning were Lars-Göran, Mikael Collin and Matthias Winther from Audile, (AFC3 Audio Partners who also project managed the installation and commissioning on behalf of the Opera) alongside Yamaha Scandinavia’s Tomas Nylén, and Ron Bakker, System Marketing Manager, Yamaha Commercial Audio.
The attendees enjoyed a demonstration of AFC3 courtesy of a half-hour concert by soprano Lena Nordin and concert pianist Mattias Böhm, the performers afterwards discussing the benefits of the system from the artist’s point of view, explaining to the audience how it works to support and enhance the performance.
After Lars had explained the advantages of installing the AFC3 from the Opera’s point of view, Mikael had given a technical talk on the system and a Q&A session, tenor Klas Hedlund performed, again accompanied by Mattias Böhm.
This time the guests were invited to join the musicians on the floor. Klas and Mattias performed identical pieces of music, with the AFC3 system switched both on and off, so that the guests could hear the difference.
“The AFC3 installation has really increased the ability of the musicians to communicate musically with each other,” says Mattias. “Not only in this case between myself and the soloists, but also between the members of the orchestra. It has made a great difference.”
photo: Lars-Göran Ehn (Stockholm Royal Opera), Matthias Winther and Mikael Collin (Audile), Ron Bakker and Tomas Nylen (Yamaha)
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