San Francisco–Multi-venue, multi-purpose Biwako Hall in Otsu City, Japan, recently upgraded its speaker management systems, installing five Dolby Lake Processors in the 1848-seat Main Theatre plus another five units in a smaller 804-seat Theatre. Located next to Japan’s largest lake, Lake Biwa, Biwako Hall opened in 1998 to provide a variety of venues for music, opera, dance, drama and traditional performing arts productions.

The Dolby Lake Processors are being used on the main and proscenium EAW speaker systems. According to project manager Masahito Oshitani, Technical Manager (Sound), Biwako Hall, “Once system tuning was complete, everyone’s reaction was to think that a new speaker system had been installed because the difference in quality was so great. We have used a Mesa Quad EQ unit, so we knew the quality, but the Dolby Lake Processor is quite something.”

Oshitani praised the Dolby Lake Processor’s asymmetrical filters and the precision and high degree of accuracy with which the system could be time aligned, enabling him to obtain a far more natural performance out of the speakers. He added, “The other advantage was that it much improved the low frequency performance of the rooms. Without the Dolby Lake Processors we found that frequencies between 1kHz and 2kHz were a little harsh. But with the Dolby Lake Processors in circuit the performance in this range is far more natural.”

The Dolby Lake Processors were provided by Dolby Live Sound’s Japanese distributor, Bestec Audio Inc.

For more information, visit Dolby Laboratories, Live Sound at www.dolby.com/livesound; Bestec Audio Inc at www.bestecaudio.com; and Biwako Hall at www.biwako-hall.or.jp/english.