DECIMA 1948 Supplies CODA Audio for Donizetti Renaissance

	The Teatro Donizetti opera house in Bergamo, Italy

More than two hundred years old, the Teatro Donizetti opera house in Bergamo, Italy, recently underwent a comprehensive three-year renovation and restoration project. The work was aimed at upgrading every aspect of the historic venue, from structural and safety considerations to improving the functionality of the building for the benefit of artists, audiences and the in-house staff. Detailed attention was paid to every aspect of the renovation, which was completed during the venue's coronavirus pandemic-enforced closure. A fundamentally important part of any music venue is its audio system, and following extensive work on the acoustics of the horseshoe-shaped, three-tiered interior, integrator and specialist in theatre technology Decima 1948 was appointed to install a new system.

Decima has vast experience of handling sensitive projects in heritage settings. As a system- designer, integrator and distributor of theatre technology, including sound and lighting equipment, the company is able to draw from a wide range of high quality brands to meet the needs of its demanding clients. At Teatro Donizetti, experienced system designer Guido Diamanti developed a CODA Audio system based around the company's high output point source range, HOPS.

The brief required that the enclosures were to be as compact and unobtrusive as possible in the beautiful interior of the theatre, while simultaneously being capable of delivering pristine audio with good frequency response to support a full range of speech and recorded music. Diamanti chose to use CODA's compact two-way HOPS-8 for the system. A total of 8 x HOPS8 were discreetly installed (four either side of the stage), comfortably obtaining even coverage from the stalls to the highest gallery. The system is driven by 2 x CODA Audio LINUS10C DSP amplifiers. The coherence of response meant that setup proved extremely simple and consisted primarily of adjusting the relative levels of the adjacent pairs of loudspeakers with the minimum of equalization.

During the commissioning and final testing of the system, Teatro Donizetti's resident sound engineer, Christian Tasca, who has worked at the venue for thirteen years, declared himself very impressed with the sound and the LINUS control software, which enables settings and adjustments to be made easily. Tasca is looking forward to putting the system through its paces in front of a live audience in the very near future.

Enzo Trovato, technical director at Decima 1948 comments: "Bergamo was one of the Italian cities most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and suffered very badly in the first wave of COVID-19. In recent months, though, the city has picked itself up and showed immense character in rebuilding itself -- the conclusion of the renovation works at Teatro Donizetti is a fitting symbol of that rebirth and restoration. Decima is proud to have played a part in helping to revitalize the theatre for the benefit of the citizens and performers who will soon be able to enjoy its magnificent auditorium. The CODA Audio system perfectly meets the need to be discreet and yet powerful, delivering an excellent solution for the long term future of the venue."