Garfield, NJ | May, 2015 - The Venetian is a busy event and reception facility with a well-established reputation as the venue of choice in Northern New Jersey for weddings and other formal events. The hall's majestic décor, with its marble walls and flooring, is truly impressive in its grandeur. That same architecture has also long been a source of frustration for any event coordinator whose plans include musical entertainment, with the hall's highly reflective acoustics reducing even the most virtuoso performances to something of a cacophony. 

The Venetian recently underwent a large-scale overhaul of its audio, video, and lighting systems, designed and implemented by Paramus, NJ-based Synapse Audio Visual Designs. Among the most significant challenges was the Venetian's main hall, the Palazzo, a 100' x 90' chamber with 28-foot ceilings and plenty of marble. To overcome the Palazzo's challenging reverberance, Synapse AV recommended an audio system centered around Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steered array loudspeakers. 

"We've worked with the Iconyx system in the past, and felt it would be a great solution for this space, not only sonically but also aesthetically," explains Synapse Chief Design Consultant Stephen Cannella.

A pair of Iconyx IC Live ICL-FR-DUAL steerable arrays is installed at the dais end of the hall, with a pair of IC8-R-II arrays installed as side fills. Two Renkus-Heinz IC215S-FR subwoofers provide low frequency reinforcement. 

As Chris Obssuth, Synapse's Managing Partner, observes, the Iconyx systems proved to be the right choice in addressing the hall's audio issues, delivering clean, consistent coverage throughout the room. "We were able to hit 109dB in this huge room with only about a 3dB variation between any two points in the hall," Obssuth reports. "The Iconyx beam steering technology made all the difference in being able to keep the energy off the walls, enabling us to achieve not just consistent coverage, but clean, articulate sound and exceptional intelligibility."

Obssuth cites the Iconyx arrays' streamlined, low-profile form factor as another essential aspect contributing to the success of this project. "In an ornate setting like this, a standard line array or point source system would negatively impact the room's aesthetics no matter where you placed them," he says. "With the Iconyx, we were able to conceal the speakers to the point where they're barely discernable."