The university called upon audio expert David Allara, the national audio visual manager at CARDNO ITC Consultants, to help find a solution to a long standing intelligibility problem. Allara brought in local Tannoy Professional distributor Audio Products Group to provide preliminary modelling of the theatre using Tannoy's Beam Engine software. When the University were shown what could be achieved with just a pair of loudspeakers they were keen for a demonstration.
"As well as intelligibility, the university was also keen for any new solution to be unobtrusive and aesthetically pleasing at the same time," said Allara. "QFlex was selected due to its ability to provide even audio coverage from a single pair of speakers without the use of delays, but because of their design they also provided minimal architectural impact on the theatre."
The proof of concept demonstration was undertaken in conjunction with local contractors, Sturman Electronics, using a single QFlex 32 to show just what the technology could do. During the demo, everyone was immediately impressed with the remarkably even coverage achieved throughout the theatre, especially given the 540 seat capacity and steeply raked seating. After a relatively swift and easy installation, just two QFlex 32s, mounted high and almost out of sight, was enough to alleviate any of the acoustic problems the lecture theatre had suffered from previously.
"Since the new QFlex system has been installed the complaints about not being able to hear the lecture have stopped," testified Allara. "This kind of silence is golden for the full time AV team at the University, because it means the new audio system is doing exactly what it is supposed to do - deliver clear and natural sounding speech and music to all 540 seats and they can spend their valuable time elsewhere without having to worry about the audio system in the flagship lecture theatre."
(Jim Evans)
