GORS, the Embassy of Latgale

GORS, the Embassy of Latgale - a concert hall compliant with global standards.

May 2013

GORS, the Embassy of Latgale is a place where the story of Latgale is both created and told. A place where cultural heritage and ancient values, traditions and creation, the language and events, the most significant global trends, art, culture, dance and songs converge.

Rēzekne is the first city in Latvia where a completely new concert hall has been built from the ground up, and currently it may be seen as the most important cultural building in the whole of Latvia. The design by Uldis Balodis and Daiga Bikše with the motto Zīdaste (Waxwing) won the architectural design competition in 2008.

GORS, the Embassy of Latgale, is a centre of culture, two concert halls – the Great Hall named Gors with 1,000 seats (3,000 standing places) and the Small Hall named Zīdaste with 220 seats (1,000 standing places), a film theatre, a place of residence for artists, an exhibition space for art, a restaurant, three rooms for seminars, conferences, workshops, corporate events and creative activities. GORS, the Embassy of Latgale, also houses a Civil Registry Office and an information centre.

The building has a classic three-part volume combination – a multi-level vestibule that is open for view. An area of approximately 3.5 hectares surrounding GORS, the Embassy of Latgale, has also been developed. The new building has six floors in the Great Hall part and five floors in the Small Hall part. The total area of the building is 11,166 square metres.

The pride of GORS is its high-quality acoustics which provide perfect enjoyment of musically dramatic performances (opera, ballet, and musicals), symphonic music concerts, choral and chamber music concerts, amateur and mass entertainment events. The sonority of the concert halls is ensured by their special architecture that allows the acoustic properties to be modified depending on the type of the concert.

SGS Sistēmas also took part in the design process of GORS, the Embassy of Latgale, by providing a wide range of audio and lighting equipment, as well as development of the technical design, delivery and installation thereof.

In the final phase of construction of the building, Rēzekne City Council and the operator of the concert hall decided to modernise and update the audio and lighting technologies set out in the initial design.

SGS Sistēmas developed and presented the design project with various improvements and additional audio and lighting equipment.

It was offered to supply the concert hall with Clay Paky moving lights which stand out in their product class with their excellent quality, flexibility, precision, and light output, and also, more importantly for an acoustic concert hall, very silent operation. It was proposed to install lights with 1500watt lamps for greater distances and 6 units of Alpha Spot QWO 800 ST for more mobile applications. The particular equipment was chosen due to its lightweight and compact construction, while providing great zoom and light output which is essential in such large-scale projects.

After the presentation of improvements offered by SGS Sistēmas, it was decided to completely change the PA system, as well as the audio and lighting control systems. Due to this fact GORS is the first place in Latvia where the lighting control system has a full backup functionality. Thanks to the wide network switching capabilities of MA Lighting, a very flexible lighting system control is ensured.

SGS Sistēmas delivered and installed several Selecon luminaires. Taking into account the considerable dimensions of the room, only high-power lighting products were used: Pacific Zoomspots, Rama HP 175 PC and Arena PC.

SGS Sistēmas installed the Midas digital audio control system which is globally renowned and also well known in Latvia. This was particularly relevant to the technical personnel of the concert hall because, since their everyday activities were made easier due to the fact that the majority of Latvian sound engineers are familiar with the particular Midas digital system and consider it to be extremely suitable for their work.

It was decided to equip the stage of the Great Hall Gors with 10 units of Turbosound TMW-115 stage monitors which are characterised by their low profile, high cost-efficiency and good sound quality. The stage monitor system uses MC² Audio E-Series amplifiers and Klark Teknik DN 9848E digital system processors. To choose the correct PA system, two important aspects had to be considered – weight limitations and, of course, sound quality, and, based on these criteria, SGS Sistēmas together with the technical management of the concert hall opted for the d&b audiotechnik V-series system. A considerable advantage of this system is the fact that it has cardioid subwoofers.

Currently GORS, the Embassy of Latgale, is a world-class concert hall capable of ensuring high-quality artistic performance which in part has also been achieved by the well-prepared lighting and audio installations provided by SGS Sistēmas.

Installed equipment:

1 x MA Lighting grandMA2 Light, SV – lighting control console;
1 x MA Lighting grandMA2 Replay Unit – lighting control console, backup function;
2 x MA Lighting MA onPC Command Wing – lighting control surface;
5 x MA Lighting 2Port Node on PCO – network switching equipment;
2 x MA Lighting 2Port Node on PC PRO – network switching equipment;
3 x MA Lighting 4Port Node – network switching equipment;
6 x MA Lighting DMX Booster 1-7 – DMX signal splitter;
4 x Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1500 – moving colour-change projectors;
4 x Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500 – moving effect projectors;
6 x Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800 ST – moving effect projectors;
42 x Selecon Pacific 14-35 – profile luminaires;
12 x Selecon Rama PC 175 – PC lens luminaires;
8 x Selecon Arena PC 2K – PC lens luminaires;
2 x Robert Juliat Cyrano 1015 – followspots;
1 x Swefog Ultimate 3000DMX – fog generators;
1 x Midas PRO 2 – digital audio mixing console;
1 x Midas PRO 2C – digital audio mixing console;
2 x Midas DL 251 – input/output unit;
1 x Midas DL 252 – input/output unit;
1 x RPM Dynamics RPM-TB48 I/O – recording interface;
10 x Turbosound TMW-115 – stage monitors;
2 x Klark Teknik DN 9848E – digital system processors;
4 x MC² Audio E15 – amplifiers;
4 x MC² Audio E25 – amplifiers;
1 x d&b audiotechnik V-Series – acoustic systems, amplifiers;
4 x Litec EXE Rise D8+ – electric chain hoists.