House of Lords
IVC Media responded to the acoustic challenges of providing sound enhancement in one of the most famous debating chambers.
Following the successful installation of the Sound Enhancement System within the House of Commons, IVC Media was invited by the Parliamentary Works Directorate to tender for the complete installation of a similar system within the House of Lords Chamber, incorporating over 80 microphones and 500 loudspeakers.
Working with Glensound Electronics, IVC Media designed and installed a custom manufactured system employing advanced audio techniques to overcome problems within this historic building. Each of the 80 microphones and 500 loudspeakers is computer controlled to accomadate the widely differing sound levels that are experienced from a near empty to full chamber of over 600 vociferous debating members.
The microphones are suspended from the ornate ceiling some 20 metres above the Chamber but, on certain occasions, they have to be removed then reinstated to their original positions. This is achieved by providing each microphone with its own precision built, remotely controlled winch that can withdraw the microphone from the chamber up to ceiling level then return it to its exact original position, ready for use.
Installation of the new system was very time critical in that the old system had to be removed and the complete new system installed, tested and commissioned during the Summer Recess. To achieve this, computer modelling techniques were used to verify the design.
Subsequent to these installations, IVC Media have carried out several interesting Projects within the Palace, including the live output of the Big Ben chimes for BBC news!
