Guangzhou Opera House

Overlooking the Pearl River the Guangzhou Opera House is at the heart of Guangzhou’s cultural sites development. Adopting state of the art technology in its design and construction it will be a lasting monument to the New Millennium, confirming Guangzhou as one of Asia’s cultural centres. Its unique twin boulder design will enhance urban function by opening access to the riverside and dock areas and creating a new dialogue with the emerging new town.

Located in the new city of Pearl River, the Guangzhou Opera House has become one of China’s three biggest theaters. Constructed from 12,000 tons of steel on a 70,000 square meter site, the Opera House includes an 1,800-seat and a 400-seat theater. Both have been installed with L-ACOUSTICS sound reinforcement systems supplied by Chinese distributor Rightway Audio Consultants and installed by contractor Leifull Light and Sound Enterprises.

The Guangzhou Opera House was designed by London-based architect Zaha Hadid to represent two boulder-like structures of different sizes, with a theatre located in each. The Grand Theatre in the main structure has been installed with eight KUDO line source cabinets and two SB28 high-powered subwoofers per side, with a central channel of 10 flown dV-DOSC line source cabinets. A dV-SUB subwoofer is installed on each side of the dV-DOSC array. Both the KUDO and dV-DOSC array are concealed in the ceiling, in keeping with Chinese visual aesthetics.

On each side of the stage apron is a concealed installation of 10 ARCS medium format line source cabinets and two SB28 subs. A total of 28 8XT compact coaxial enclosures are used as fill speakers; eight for the stage apron, six for second floor down fill, nine for third floor down fill and five for third floor up fill. Additionally, there is a sound effects system of 33 12XTs and two SB28 subs, with 12 12XTs wall mounted on the first floor, nine on the second floor, six on the third floor and six installed into the ceiling, along with the two SB28s. Stage monitoring is provided by 12XT high performance coaxial enclosures, four 115XT HiQ active stage monitors and an SB28 subwoofer. The opera house’s sound reinforcement system is incredible,” says Mr Zhou, chief sound engineer of Guangzhou Opera House. “Not too dry and not too bright, it meets the needs of a wide range of performances, including large-scale operas, enabling residents of the city to enjoy the performing arts.”

The smaller, multi-function theatre has a mobile system of eight 115XT HiQs and four SB118 compact subwoofers, which can be configured according to the performance There is also a stage monitor system of four 12XTs, and a sound effects system of twelve 12XTs and eight 8XTs. Additionally, a rehearsal space and a news room have been installed with 112P self-powered coaxials.

All systems throughout the Opera House are driven by L-ACOUSTICS LA4 and LA8 amplified controllers.

“Having supplied equipment to such prestigious projects as the Beijing National Grand Theatre and Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, we are proud to have worked on such an amazing installation in our home town of Guangzhou,” says Rightway Audio Consultants director Danny Lau. “The Guangzhou Opera House will be central to this newly-built district of the city, and the L-ACOUSTICS systems will ensure that visitors will benefit from hearing the very best sound from all performances.”

One of the three largest performance venues in China (along with Shanghai’s Grand Theater and Beijing’s National Centre For The Performing Arts), the new Guangzhou Opera House made its world premiere this May, with ETC entertainment and architectural lighting systems in control. The permanent ETC equipment has now helped light the production-packed 9th China Arts Festival (May 10th-25th, 2010), the most prestigious platform for the nation’s top talent, and for which Guangzhou was the headlining venue. “ETC’s lighting products and systems match the ambitions of this new world-class facility,” says ETC Asia General Manager Wynne Cheung. “ETC’s control technologies will not only handle the most complex multimedia effects, they will meet the artistic needs of the broad range of productions that will be staged at the venue.”

Located in China’s third largest city, the Guangzhou Opera complex is futuristic in its architecture and theater technology. The two-part structure, composed of the 1,800-seat Grand Theatre and an adjoining 400-seat multipurpose hall, rises as a powerful new symbol from the banks of the Pearl River. Designed by Pritzker-Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, the 452,000-square-foot (42,000-square-meter) complex aspires not only to be an icon for Guangzhou’s new Zhu Jiang business district but for China’s rising cultural status in the new millennium.

When the $202m facilities were debuted on May 7th, 2010, with a gala production of the opera Turandot in the Grand Theatre, the lighting control was done by Guangzhou’s two ETC Eos® 8000 lighting-control consoles, Eos Client software (for remote console programming), and multiple ETC Net3™ Gateways for full ACN-networked functionality. ETC’s Eos Product Manager Anne Valentino comments: “The Eos control system has rapidly established itself as the leading control choice for opera, theater, and ballet institutions around the world. It was specifically engineered for the demands of such productions, with full backup, partitioned control, and multiple points of user interaction. Eos' straightforward but powerful user interface is designed to accommodate the programming needs of the most complex lighting rigs, with tools designed for the lighting programmer, lighting designer, assistant lighting designer, and production electricians -- all of whom have different needs.”

The Grand Theatre’s permanent lighting rig also includes 360 ETC fixtures: 220 ETC Source Four® conventionals (a mix of 5°, 10°, 14°, 19°, and 26° fixed-focus ellipsoidal spotlights and 15-30°-range zoom ellipsoidal spotlights), as well as 140 Source Four Revolution® automated fixtures. Fifteen ETC Sensor®+ racks installed with a total of 986 5kW dimmers, 24 10kW dimmers and 406 5kW relays manage all stage dimming. Houselights and worklights are controlled by an extensive ETC Unison® architectural system with touchscreen-control wall stations and portable stations.

Guangzhou Opera’s multifunction hall also runs off an ETC-networked system, employing a pair of ETC’s Congo® consoles, Congo Client software, and ETC Net3 Two-Port Gateways. ETC’s Congo-family product-manager Sarah Clausen says, “Congo’s fast and flexible programming and playback style make it perfect for multi-purpose venues with constantly changing performance requirements.” The multifunction hall’s lighting rig, with a broad mix of fixtures from leading manufacturers, includes 16 Source Four 25°-50° Zoom spotlights as well as eight Source Four Revolution moving lights. Here too, ETC’s Sensor+ dimmer racks with Advanced Feature functionality are the workhorses behind the theater dimming. Meanwhile, ETC’s Unison architectural control with a convenient variety of control-station interfaces regulates the houselights and worklights in the facility.

The impressive Guangzhou Opera project was supplied and installed by ETC’s distributor in China, Hangzhou Yidashi Lighting Equipment Co., Ltd. Commissioning and turn-on were carried out by Yidashi’s experienced Technical Manager Mr. Wu Jian Wei.