RIA Novosti install d&b audiotechnik T-Series loudspeakers

Russia’s state-owned national news corporation, RIA Novosti (RIAN), have installed d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers in the large multipurpose hall which forms part of their main office complex in the Russian capital, Moscow.

RIA Nostovi, founded in 1941, is the largest and most significant news agency in Russia. In many regards it is not too dissimilar from the BBC World Service. It provides broadcasts in Russian and a further five European languages.

In mid-2010 it was decided that the RIA Novosti offices needed refitting. As Alexander Fetisov, who is Head of Installation at the pro audio installation company Aris, this was no easy task.

“The offices of RIA Novosti are a complex of multistoried buildings including a large multipurpose hall the Big Universal (BUH), several conference halls, apparatus rooms, operational halls, all located in the centre of Moscow,” he explained

It was to Aris and Fetisov that the responsibility of sound reinforcement in the BUH was handed.

“As is the nature of these large Government projects,” continued Fetisov, “the layers of administration were deep; the system integrator was Atlantis Communications; AVI Lab held the subcontract for sound, video and conference equipment, handing the ‘sound’ brief to audio specialists Aris.”

The content produced by RIA Novosti includes programmes on politics, economics, science, society and more. However, being state-owned, RIA Novosti also plays an important role for government announcements.

“The tasks of the agency also include distribution of official messages of the Russian government, ministries, agencies and social organisations,” added Fetisov.

The 400-seater BUH is used by RIA Novosti for a wide range of activities including the occasional concert. However, it is mostly used for live presentations such as discussions, meetings and conferencing. Fetisov took this on board when considering the installation.

“At Government level the brief was to provide ‘nothing but the best’,” he continued; “I selected d&b audiotechnik equipment because their loudspeaker systems adhere precisely to what the technical specifications outline; the accuracy of the propagation patterns never ceases to amaze me, and of course they sound fantastic. The crucial factor for me was their ability to produce two things equally well; truly concert specification musical reproduction and superb speech intelligibility. The BUH isn’t a difficult room acoustically; as such the d&b T-Series solution we have implemented really shines.”

Since the refit was completed in June 2011 Fetisov has received a number of compliments from a vast array of presenters, users and the occasional musical performers.

What is more, Aris’s work at RIA Novosti recently won them the Prointegration Award at the Integrated System Russia 2011 event held in November 2011.

Unsurprisingly, Fetisov is very proud of his work at RIA Novosti: “In many ways RIA Novosti is the voice of Russia so I am extremely pleased with the result.”