Ridley's attractive auditorium is well designed for dramatic performances and musicals with a large stage and modern technical and lighting systems. Unfortunately, the original audio system was poorly designed and installed. Its loudspeakers were suspended above the acoustic clouds resulting in numerous dead spots, poor vocal clarity and muffled music quality.
In early 2015, after several unsuccessful repair attempts, the school asked Clear Sound, Inc. of Yeadon, Pennsylvania to propose a system upgrade.
Clear Sound's Chris Hughes designed a new loudspeaker system using three Community I Series model IP8-1152/96 loudspeakers suspended below the acoustic clouds and arranged in an exploded cluster configuration to cover the auditorium evenly. He bi-amped the loudspeakers with QSC amplifiers and provided a Biamp Nexia CS DSP system with remote controls located in the tech booth and at the stage. The upgraded system includes an existing PreSonus digital mixer and a variety of wired and wireless microphones.
Hughes says the upgrade turned out very well. The system now has smooth coverage with no dead spots and the vocal clarity and musical quality are excellent. Although the original system included subwoofers, Hughes says the I Series loudspeakers have plenty of bass with no subwoofers needed. He commented that the school recently presented its yearly musical, Legally Blonde and people were thrilled with the sound.
(JMim Evans)
