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STEREO IMAGING: THE LEFT/RIGHT CONFIGURATION
Although not the best technical solution, the left/right configuration meets both visual and practical criteria and is most
commonly used. By nature, the stereo imaging of any left/right system is limited for a large part of the audience and the-
re are compromises with respect to the consistency of tonal balance in the horizontal plane. The left/right configuration
has the advantage of being able to reproduce effects of spatialization and localization. The area over which these effects
is audible depends on the separation of the two arrays and the orientation of the left array with respect to the right
array, defined by the intersection of the coverage for both arrays. More the arrays are rotated or panned onstage, greater
is the area over which stereo imaging is experienced. Less they are rotated onstage and more they are aimed offstage,
less stereo imaging is audible. Typically, for concert applications L/R arrays are separated 15-20 meters and used at zero
degrees. Experience has shown that this provides the best trade-off between stereo imaging, evenness of horizontal
coverage and reduction of the potential for build up of low frequency and upper mid bass energy in the centre.
LEFT/CENTRE/RIGHT (LCR) CONFIGURATIONS
Although it can be sometimes difficult to negotiate the centre position (from a visual standpoint), LCR systems offer more
flexibility in optimising audience coverage with the potential for improved intelligibility, more even horizontal tonal balance
and better image localization compared with standard LR configurations. When using the LCR configuration for live music
applications, three TTL33-A/TTL31-A arrays can be installed with the C array at 0 degrees and the L/R arrays panned offsta-
ge up to 50 degrees (for speech reinforcement, L/R arrays can be panned offstage up to 100 degrees to optimise coverage
and intelligibility). For theatrical sound reinforcement, the 100 degree coverage of TTL33-A/TTL31-A is highly recommended
to centre cluster applications and L/R coverage for the typical 12-15 metre L/R array separation that occurs in theatres.
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