Opened in 2003, the City of London Academy is one of four City of London corporation sponsored academies. The Academy’s main auditorium is a large purpose-built hall with seating designed for speech, music, assemblies, lectures and large-scale theatrical productions. An elevating audio performance was the purpose of the project, and to make the space capable of the largest theatrical productions while remaining visually minimalistic. For this project it was necessary to avoid installing any large box speakers hanging because there was a weight restriction they needed to observe on the timber beam ceiling structure. AV integrator Torpedo Factory Group proposed a full range, high SPL solution in the form of K-array Kobra line array elements complemented by Thunder subwoofers, and supplied by the Italian audio manufacturer’s UK distributor 2B Heard. 

A pair of Thunder-KMT18P subwoofers are flown at left and right providing low frequencies, and directly in front of these two long columns of Kobra-KK102 one-meter line array elements complete the powerful and architecturally minimalist PA. Even though it’s a large room this sound system easily fills the space and sounds very natural and open. The sound is clear, crisp and bassy when needed. Each different sound type is accurately reproduced even in this large hall environment. The auditorium at the City of London Academy is a well-designed room with unusually good acoustics. It’s been built with very few parallel walls and correctly installed insulation, and even though it’s a large room the sound system easily fills the space and sounds very natural and open.