An integral hub of activity on the school campus, the multi-purpose space is a former barn, originally converted into a venue during the 1950s. The building is in constant daily use, not just for stage plays, dance and drama shows, bands and live music, but also for lectures and presentations.
It features a very distinctive hydraulic floor, which can be raised up to transform the flat floor space into a raked seated auditorium, which immediately changes the point of focus for sound and all the related acoustic characteristics of the space.
The time had come for the former sound system - installed about seven years ago - to be replaced. Joe Hilton, Downe House's head of technical, approached Peter Butler, sales manager for the A.C. Audio division. His main requirement was for a system that would allow the bottom down-fills in the main speaker hangs to be cut when the floor was up, and provide a generally more adaptable set up for the building that didn't need re-rigging each time the layout of the space was changed. Butler recommended that he listen to the Nexo Geo S805 compact, high output line array system.
The sale was co-ordinated for AC-ET by Glen Thompson from AC-ET's High Wycombe HQ, who worked closely with Nexo's UK sales manager Gareth Collyer in putting the specification together.
Eight Nexo Geo S805 were supplied, flown in two four-a-side left and right hangs, together with four CD12-P hyper-cardiod (directional) subs which are flown upstage of the main arrays to prevent back-spill onto the stage.
These are all powered and processed (EQ & time aligned) through Nexo NXAMP 4X4 Powered TD controllers. The package from AC-ET also included tour grade cabling and all the necessary flying hardware.
(Jim Evans)
