MFDC Auditorium (MANIPUR FILM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION) in Manipur The North Eastern part of India, with a closely knit group of states, popularly known as Seven Sisters is well endowed with rich and diverse culture. The myriad events that happen throughout the year in this part of India – both traditional and contemporary, form the very essence of life in these states. A little known fact is the presence of many world class venues with top of the line infrastructure that helps the extension of these cultural events and programs to the public, including large auditoriums where audience flock to throughout the year for various large and small format programs, events and cinema. One such shining example is the MFDC Auditorium (MANIPUR FILM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION) in the capital city of Imphal in Manipur. The Manipur Film Development Corporation Limited is a Public Undertaking and was registered as a Corporation in 1987 and was earlier known as the Manipur Film Development Council. About MFDC About MFDC: MFDC was launched to promote and propagate film industry in the State. Its main objectives are to promote, develop, aid and assist to the cinematography trade and industry, and all of its allied trades and businesses, studios, laboratories and theatres for the production of films, both celluloid and digital videos; television programs, organization of national and international film festivals, establishment of Film Archives, Library and Museum for the development of film industry on modern lines. The auditorium was inaugurated in November 2011 by the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohon Singh. Keeping in mind the eminence and the versatile nature of this auditorium, the facilities had to be the best in terms of design, AV experience and audience comfort. The speciality of this auditorium, with a seating capacity of 850 – can host live programs such as rock shows, classical musical programs, drama, seminars etc on one hand and also show movies both Celluloid & Digital in 3D and Dolby Sound. The Stage lighting is excellent and with over 25 mikes catering to various needs of vocal and instrument varities, theatre production is at par excellence in this auditorium. This multifunctional Auditorium is one of a kind and considering its ambience, acoustics and high level of audio visual equipments installations it is possibly one of the best Auditoriums in the whole of Asia. Commenting on a successful installation, Mr. Y. Ningthem Singh, Chief Engineer and Project Director, Manipur Development Society (The Government Agency which handles both the Civil Construction works and Equipment Installation) said, “The MFDC auditorium is a prestigious project and is unique in many aspects – being the only auditorium in the region to cater to wide variety of entertainment formats. From the AV perspective we needed crystal clear quality sound with ease of operation and maintenance. As mandated, we worked upon the requirement with trusted, System Integration partner, Ace Acoustics and after a thorough understanding of the market and the available brands, we were convinced that Harman is the provider who could cater to all our audio requirements in an integrated manner, thus setting a benchmark for the region. Sound – a key essence of a show: The entire system installation project at the MFDC was expertly handled by Ace Acoustics, Guwahati. From providing the basic design and drawings, to installation and post installation support, Ace Acoustics has handled this project to deliver a world-class audio design within. The Ace Acoustics team was lead led by Devasis Barkataki, Debabrat Duarah and Ramanuj Sharma, who were directly involved in the project from start until completion. The entire range of audio products by Harman, from input to output with brands- AKG, BSS, Crown, JBL, Lexicon and Soundcraft, have been installed here and with many legendary brands under the Harman Professional fold, it was a choice that allowed Ace Acoustics, the audio consultants & system integrators to create a single system solution with various products that are designed to work seamlessly with one another. The auditorium is built with the main sound system comprising of Tri-Amplified, High Power, Low Profile® ScreenArray Cinema Loudspeaker System THX certified JBL 5674 and 2 Nos JBL 4642 powered by Crown DSI 4000 amplifiers. The industry benchmarked JBL 8340A (32 nos) surround speakers added to the amazing surround channels. The system has to deliver to its fullest output in all these scenarios and most importantly, with ease to the user. Being a 5.1 Cinema application the front three stacks, Left, Right and Centre comprised of famed high performance JBL VRX 932LA Line Array cabinet Crown amplifiers were mainly used for the Line Array Surround System, Subwoofer Surround, Stage Monitor Sound System, Green room and control room sound system, The strong high frequency deliverable of these cabinets made the front channels strong for the movie application. These crossover boxes were complemented with two arrays of 18” LF driver JBL VRX 918( 8 nos) hangs, to give that bottom end required for cinema and to make the system sound full range during presentations and speeches. Soundcraft Live 8, the digital live mixing console provided a 40 channel, which could handle all the input sources from stage and route them to the great sound system. The main highlight of the entire installation was the use of processing equipment – BSS by Harman. The backend processing was done using BSS by Harman Digital Processing units. The Soundweb London BLU boxes provide the capability of programming the system in various modes like Live Music, Cinema application and Speech Presentations mode. It was the user interface which added to ease of use for the end customer. The programming of the BSS BLU 160 and BSS BLU 120 units helped to equalize the system to perform and deliver in all the modes. BSS BLU 10 enabled the user to handle and control important features like mode selection and volume controls for this application. In summary, the sophisticated system was made to perform and deliver immediately, being operated by untrained operators with the ease of BSS BLU products and the interface. An entire range of AKG by Harman microphones and headphones ( both wired & wireless) have been deployed at the auditorium to ensure the users of the auditorium get the best experience in sound, both on-stage and in the audience section. These microphones will be extensively used for vocal and instrumental applications. The stage microphones PCC 160 directional microphones were used to pick the stage voices during the cultural shows Lexicon reverb processing done by Lexicon MX200 added to the performance during the Live Shows events. For the main vocals AKG D5 microphone was extensively used for lead & backing vocals on stage, including D40, Dynamic Instrument Microphone and AKG WMS 450 wireless microphones. AKG K240 Studio MK II a dynamic stereo headphones, is also available in the auditorium for the comfort and use of the on-stage performers “The expectations for this project were extremely high given that this install had to be the very best in the region. We had to work around many challenges which included integrating and customizing the audio in a way that it best suits the multi-purpose nature of the auditorium. A key reason that Harman products were chosen was due to the vast product range that could deliver for this varied requirement, unparallel audio output, functionality and after sales service which gives even the end-user the ease of operation and ownership. As a company with a rich experience in audio installations, Ace is proud to have been a part of this dream project. We look forward to working on more such projects within the region with high-performance audio systems by Harman.” said Devasis Barkataki, Director, Ace Acoustics. In an auditorium of this size and capacity, the input is always an essential factor in determining the perfect sonic output. As David McKinney, Senior Director – India Operations, Harman Professional explains, “The successful configuration and programming of the audio components using HARMAN products for this particular project is a commendable achievement for Ace Acoustics and also for HARMAN. Harman India’s technical team and the team from Ace Acoustics did an amazing job with a project of this scale. Every part of the signal chain uses the high end products from all the Harman brands. This has ensured the high quality performance throughout the venue – sit anywhere for any event and you experience the same effect in sound Harman has a rich experience of being the sound solutions partner at prominent auditorium and theatre venues around the world, including 10 stadiums at the Commonwealth Games 2010 and the 52nd annual GRAMMY® Awards in Hollywood. Some of the other similar projects in India include Guwahati Medical College Auditorium Chettinad Medical College Auditorium, Chennai. This was yet another successful project of a similar nature. harman.in/products/professional/case-studies/mfdc-auditorium/
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:13:41 +0000
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