Zurich Chamber Orchestra plays with Sticks and Picos
Since 2002, the musicians of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the administration have lived in the ZKO House in Zurich Tiefenbrunnen. All ZKO rehearsals as well as chamber music and children’s concerts, CD recordings and private concerts take place here. Our loudspeaker systems are mounted almost invisibly and yet well positioned.
The former high-voltage laboratory was completely rebuilt in 2002. Since then, Zurich has gained an exciting and diverse venue. Renovation work took place again in the summer of 2017 as the growing number of visitors required expanded infrastructure. A modern color and lighting concept, a newly furnished bar and multimedia concert technology have since made the ZKO house shine in new splendor. The ZKO Chamber Orchestra today consists of 28 permanent members (strings, flute, oboe, horn, harpsichord) and if you take it seriously, also of the TouringSticks, Picospots and subwoofers from AD-Systems.
High demands and sound assessment
At the beginning of 2017, our Swiss partner promedias AG received an enquiry from a system integrator from the ZKO House with the request for optimum sound tuning in the concert hall and reorientation of the sound reproduction. Since sound and spatial imaging are an essential part of chamber music, especially when playing classical music, Chris Steiger’s team was faced with a challenge. The aim was to find an optimal system solution whose components interlocked harmoniously, technically met the requirements of playing classical music and took up as little space as possible in the concert hall. From a technical point of view, the bass must be able to go down very low, the midrange is responsible for almost all instruments and the membrane used should be able to be deflected easily and by the smallest impulses. In addition, the tweeters must have extremely low distortion – the crossovers must also work in the correct phase…
Looking for speakers for classical music
The end result of the choice of loudspeakers was that only 6.5″ quad line-source loudspeakers were used for the FoH area of the concert room and ten 5″ coaxial high-performance loudspeakers in combination with 12″ long-throw subwoofers were used for the gallery.
The Touringstick as a selected line-source loudspeaker is a compact two-way column, equipped with 4x 6.5″ low-midrange neodymium drivers and 3x 1″ neodymium compression drivers on an asymmetrical waveguide. With its radiation pattern of 90°x20°, the required exact coverage was achieved, reflections were also reduced and sound quality and speech intelligibility were significantly improved. The frequency response covers the range around 70 Hz – 18 kHz. The system also has a passive crossover with PPCN technology.
The ten 5″ special coaxial drivers Picospot used can also be used from 100 Hz to 19 kHz and deliver an extremely precise, “full-bodied” sound that is not in proportion to the size of this speaker. The speaker has a 1″ compression driver with 1.7″ voice coil, 90° radial horn and also a crossover with PPCN technology.
The high and mid-range was combined with the Picosub, a 12″ long-throw bass reflex speaker with neodymium magnet, which covers the frequency response of 44 Hz – 370 Hz.
Representing complex ensembles, like the one here with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, is an enormous challenge for playback systems. TouringStick, Picospot and PicoSub were the suitable trio to cover the high demands of playing classical music…
(Chris Steiger – CEO & Founder der Promedias AG)
The history of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and its founder
The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO, international Zurich Chamber Orchestra) was founded in 1945 by Edmond de Stoutz and is a chamber orchestra based in Zurich. To mark its 75th anniversary, there is a virtual anniversary exhibition in the ZKO House. A 360° tour leads through the exhibition, moderated charmingly and knowledgeably by Louis de Stoutz, son of Edmond de Stoutz. Experience the history of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and its founder…Come in!
More informationen and contact:
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Seefeldstrasse 305
8008 Zürich (CH)
Phone +41 44 552 59 00
eMail:
Web: www.zko.ch
image copyright © promedias AG & zko
