Harman Professional uplifts sound experience of performances at Bangalore Gayana Samaja
Harman Professional India recently renovated audio infrastructure of Bangalore Gayana Samaja and gave it a
much overdue facelift. While preserving the original aesthetics of the venue, the 600 seater auditorium had
improved acoustics designed and installed by the HARMAN professional team of experts in partnership with
Bangalore based system integrator - Waveguide Systems.
The sound design of the venue required a serious overhaul. The main PA would only cover the venue from the
middle to 3/4th of the hall, while rest of the seats would get sound as a result of the reflection from
walls and the analog mixer had limitations of output and processing. To make the hallowed venue sound as
good as any new auditorium, Sunil Karanjikar, Application Engineer at Harman Professional India, who worked
on the design of the system said, “The project was prestigious for Harman to work on while at the same
time posed challenges due to the venue’s old architecture. The beams could not take the weight of heavy
line array speakers and the reflection from walls varied the sound impression for the audience. We had to
deliver a system which would not only overcome the venue’s architectural challenges but also be cost
effective as BGS is a free entry venue.”
Sunil also expressed his gratitude and said, “We would like to thank Giridhar Ghattam Udupa, one of India’s
leading percussionist, Ghatam player and a Harman Professional India endorsee who reached out to us for the
acoustic facelift of the venue.”
Acknowledging the challenges of this emblematic venue and commending the superior consultation and solutions
provided by Harman Professional, President of BGS, Dr. M.R.V. Prasad said, “Our auditorium has a capacity
of six hundred seats but our earlier sound system was not very good and it is the heart of a music
auditorium. We decided to entrust this job of installing an efficient and a good quality sound system to a
renowned company making the Harman professional India team the obvious choice. Within a short span of time,
they have done a wonderful job - the planning and installation of the equipment were done in a very timely,
cost-effective and professional way. I must thank the entire team of professionals lead by Sohan K.P. of
Wave Guide Systems & Harman Professional India for providing us a state-of-the-art sound system specially
designed for music. The artistes are very happy to perform on our stage because of the new sound
system.”
Commenting on the planning, Sohan K.P. of Waveguide Systems said, “The brief for the project was given to us
on 1 Jan 2017 and our team delivered the project in mere 15 days and we were ready for the opening on 15
of Jan 2017. The system was designed in a non-conventional manner; lightweight speakers that fit the
requirement were suspended from the support structure and tuned to reach the seats with the least amount
of reflections from the walls.
We have seen some of the best classical performances at the BGS. When we received the query for the acoustic
facelift of the venue, our team was extremely excited to give the best solution possible along with the
support of Harman Professional India team. There were major issues with the equipment used by BGS earlier.
Use of an analog mixer limited their number of outputs and processing, such as graphic EQ, time delay
unit or crossover. The Harman professional India team helped us design a system that would overcome
all these challenges in a very short span of time. Though the technical staff at Bangalore Gayana Samaja
was not comfortable using digital mixing consoles and control systems, we were successful in convincing
them to switch from analog to digital. We knew that this task would take time but training and hand holding
for the first few and important shows at BGS made the transition very smooth and easy. We’re indeed happy
to have successfully completed this prestigious project.”
Two units of JBL MD55 loudspeakers constitute the main PA along with two units of JBL ASB6115 subwoofers.
Additional loudspeakers included four units of JBL AC15 for front fills, two units JBL AC25 for under
balcony, and four units of JBL AC28 for upper balcony fills. Crown DCi network amplifiers drive all
the speakers, and the inputs are fed via BSS BLU link. The JBL STX 812M are used for stage monitoring
driven by Crown XTi4002 power amplifiers. The FOH and MOH mix is done on the Soundcraft Si expression
II digital mixing console. The complete system processing and control is done on the BSS BLU 100 with
HiQnet Audio Architect software with customized panel controls for different zones.
Prashant Govindan, Sr. Director Harman Professional India said “India has a rich heritage of classical
music and Harman Professional India remains committed to the nurturing and revival of classical and
traditional music genres. We are delighted to be a part of Bangalore Gayana Samaja which celebrates this
movement. The audience can now listen to their favourite musical maestros in a modern setting with an
enhanced listening pleasure by Harman’s true fidelity sound.”