The ATRiuM campus is a purpose-designed building for the university's creative division, the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries. Featuring the latest industry technologies, students studying music and sound now have access to a comprehensive list of live sound equipment including four medium venue systems with microphones, mixing desks, outboard equipment and speakers.
A.C. Entertainment Technologies, a previous supplier to the University, won the tender to provide the live sound equipment. After carrying out a site visit, arranging demos and assisting with the design of the systems, equipment was selected that could be used for classroom teaching and to create a larger single touring PA for mixing live performances.
The main live teaching systems each consist of two EAW JFL210 line array cabinets and two JFL118 18" subwoofers. They can be combined for live mixing in larger auditoriums, such as the University's student union facilities.
Each rig features the same Yamaha floor monitors, which can then be combined when used for live gigs. For cost-effectiveness and to aid in A-B speaker comparisons, the four systems feature the same power amplifier models from the QSC range.
A.C. supplied a mixture of digital and analogue sound consoles. Models include an Allen & Heath GL2400 32 channel desk, Soundcraft GB4 24 channel desk, Dynacord Powermate 2200 desk and Yamaha LS9 16 channel desk, to give students experience of mixing in both the analogue and digital domain.
The extensive list of other equipment supplied includes Dynacord and Martin Audio full range cabinets and subwoofers; Alesis, BSS, DBX, Denon, Klark Teknik, LA Audio, Lexicon, Tascam, TC Electronics, Yamaha and XTA outboard equipment; AKG, Audix, Beyerdynamic, Countryman, DPA, EMO, K&M, Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure vocal and instrument microphones, stands and DI boxes; Kelsey power distribution; and Van Damme, ATM and Tourmate microphone, speaker and power cabling and Neutrik associated connectors.
A.C.'s in-house Cable Express manufacturing service made all cabling to order and assembled the amplifier and FX racks in-house, providing the complete end-to-end PA systems ready and flightcased for use on delivery to the university.
Mairéad O'Reilly, senior lecturer, Music & Sound Division, comments, "My primary objective when specifying the equipment was to educate students to be ready for the industry by the time they graduate. This meant firstly having enough professional quality equipment to ensure every student has plenty of hands-on experience and secondly that they are introduced to the equipment brands that they are most likely to encounter."
(Jim Evans)
