"This building has been on the cards for nearly ten years," said the College's John Moriarty, "and now, at last, we have a purpose built facility for our students." The building is the realisation of a long held dream for Moriarty who was instrumental in drawing up the specification for the building and was heavily involved in every stage of its design and construction.
As the College's technical expert for all film and television equipment he was a leading player in producing tender documentation guidelines for the technical installation aided by Larry O'Toole who drew up the specification for the sound system. A full range of facilities including separate studios devoted to television, animation and recording as well as a full Pro Tools edit suite gives students practical, hands-on experience. The college even boasts its own rock school in the New Media Centre.
At the heart of the building is a multi-purpose auditorium where students produce a full range of shows as part of their training. The fully equipped hall can be configured with either flat or tiered seating, depending on the type of production, and has a full d&b audiotechnik PA system able to cope with either configuration. The audio installation in the hall was carried out by Dublin based Moscodesign, one of Ireland's top pro-audio specialists.
"As soon as we knew our tender bid had been successful, we set out to provide the College with a sound system that would be second to none," said Kevin McGing, Mosco's sound engineer and designer. "We knew a d&b system would deliver high quality sound across the audio spectrum, anything from light classical to heavy rock, and from spoken word to film," continued McGing.
McGing designed the PA system using a C7-TOP and two C7-SUBs per side, the C7-SUBs being positioned both on and beneath the stage. Ci-60s are flown over the stage while infill is provided by E3s. For film screenings, the on-stage C7-TOP and SUB are removed leaving the under stage C7-SUBs and flown Ci60s to provide sound. This configuration allows a perfectview of the huge 15 metres x 5 metres screen, which is deployed at the rear wall of the stage. MAX cabinets are used for onstage monitors, and d&b D12 and E-PAC amplifiers are used throughout. Sound is mixed through a forty-eight input Midas Heritage 1000 desk.
"The d&b system in the main hall is very good indeed," said a delighted O'Toole, "and we're hoping Kevin McGing will be putting on a 'workshop' in the near future to demonstrate the system's potential to our students." Equally happy, is the College's Rock School tutor, Matt Kelligan who petitioned very hard for the college to invest in a d&b system for the new building. A sound engineer and drummer in band Moving Hearts before he turned to training rock musicians, he had seen and used d&b PA systems all over Europe and had always found them impressive. "It's brilliant. We're extremely fortunate to have this system," hesaid. "So far, it's done everything we've asked of it and proved itself time and time again. The flexibility allows us to present music, speech or films and all of them have great sound."
(Chris Henry)
