TiMax Installed at Glyndebourne

	"TiMax gives us the toolkit that can actually accommodate our schedule," says Ross.

Glyndebourne, the celebrated East Sussex opera house, has integrated TiMax SoundHub spatial processing into its audio infrastructure in a landmark upgrade. The venue is among the world's most acoustically sensitive performance environments, where opera is fundamentally an acoustic art form. Without compromising this commitment, head of sound and video Jonathan Moss led the installation, which marked the first stage of a long-term move to harness object-based spatialization.

TiMax was central to the venue's audio redesign. Moss' dialogue with Robin Whittaker of TiMax took four years, well ahead of any further reinforcement considerations. "With a number of upgrades coinciding, we had the rather unique opportunity to look at things holistically," Ross says. "We were able to assess where we wanted to end up. TiMax is one of the first steps, not the end of the journey."

A traditional proscenium system comprises EM Acoustics' Reference Series, featuring R12s with R8 infills and S215 subs at balcony level, supported by a network of permanently installed Reference Series loudspeakers throughout the auditorium. With Dante providing the audio backbone for EM Acoustics DQ20s, driven via an SSL Live console, the TiMax integration amounted to little more than a rack-mounted unit connected to the network by two cables.

Still, Ross says, "TiMax gives us the toolkit that can actually accommodate our schedule."

During a busy summer season, dedicated sound sessions are rare, and the manual delay previously needed for spatial work was operationally costly. With a timetable comprised of a fully supported technical rehearsal in the morning, an afternoon changeover for a public evening show, then an overnight reset for the next day, Ross says, "We can achieve what we need within the sessions we've got, rather than being limited by the time it takes to do things manually."

The audio enhancement was immediate with spatial imaging applied only to the proscenium loudspeakers; TiMax tightened image definitions inward by roughly a meter on each side, pulling the perceived source firmly to the stage while mapping the stage area. Jonathan described the shift as PA sound becoming hi-fi sound, adding, "TiMax does a surprising amount even when you're not really using it heavily at all," Ross says.

Following system commissioning by TiMax product support engineer Gerry Marrone, the Glyndebourne sound team began using the SoundHub for A/B testing, initially preserving the original setup as a cue in TiMax, "We quickly ditched that," Ross says. "It was very clear the new sound was just better. Currently TiMax is just in the background as a system processor, without adding specific spatial elements to our current shows. We're taking advantage of it... whether its physical improvements, the psychoacoustic improvements ... without anyone really knowing it's there."

The transparency extends beyond opera. For presentations and talks in the intentionally reverberant auditorium, TiMax enables the sound to flourish within the room's acoustic influence at lower SPLs.

The audio infrastructure is carefully future-proofed. Integration with the SSL Live console adds flexibility via OSC, and control panels allow any channel to be designated as a spatial object on demand. Full object-based spatialization is built into the workflow, with spatial presets, tracked movement paths, and surround distribution, simply awaiting the expanded infrastructure planned for the auditorium in the coming years.

Ross adds, "The general response is nothing. The biggest compliment we can get is when someone doesn't notice what we've done."