The Great Hall is a 'L.E.A.D.S.' energy efficient design with exposed concrete surfaces that warm up and then release the stored energy back into the building. The room, being walled in concrete with tall glass windows, posed a tough challenge for consultant Fred Gilpin and local contractor Apex Audio Visual.
The room can be used either as a single large space or can be reconfigured as two or three smaller seminar rooms by giant brushed stainless steel room dividers. Either way the space presents a battery of hard, reflective surfaces. A single audio system was required to serve the needs of both configurations and, the design brief called for high quality vocal reinforcement for lectures as well as moderate music playback of pre-recorded sources. Additionally, the complete system is capable of 5.1 surround sound for movie presentations.
Analysis of the acoustics in EASE by Renkus-Heinz application engineer Jonas Domkus inspired Fred Gilpin to devise a radical design, deploying Renkus-Heinz CS-66 and CS-99 multi-driver Co-Entrant loudspeakers mounted on the ceiling and adjacent to each projection screen. This allowed the three separate areas to be driven independently or as one space. The multi-driver Co-Entrant technology delivers the high SPLs and directivity necessary to achieve good intelligibility from the 30 ft ceiling height.
(Jim Evans)
