Originally a market in Reading, Pennsylvania during the 1870s, the Santander Performing Arts Center subsequently became the Academy of Music in 1886. In 1917 the Rajah Shriners purchased it fr entertainment ranging from motion pictures to vaudeville and live performances. In 1921 a fire destroyed most of the facility, and the auditorium had to be rebuilt. Today, it is home to the Reading Symphony Orchestra and hosts major artists and events.
Providing the sound system for a venue this rich with history, it’s important to make sure the equipment you install lives up to the well-earned expectation. This particular challenge required much more than a simple install of standard issue speakers.
Needing a new sound system, the venue’s General Manager, David Farrar, was aware that his 2,000-seat theatre was special and would require a custom approach to achieve a consistently powerful sound. It took the form of a Clair Brothers C8-TrueFit system.
The system had to bring out the best for a wide range of performances, from children’s shows and comedians to orchestral performances and heavy metal bands. There was no question that Santander would require a truly tailor-made sound system. After much investigation, consultation and measurement, the C8-TrueFit system, with its ability to minimise architectural reflection and anomalies, was the unanimous choice as the best way to go.
As a general rule, C8-TrueFit arrays feature singularly-configured, continuously-variable and asymmetric waveguides that are ‘designed-to-order’ based on room shape. Clair Brothers’ approach to venue-specific design customisation is made feasible through 3D CAD software – a proprietary engineering technology. While a totally custom system is a theoretically worthy ideal to strive towards, these technological advances now overcome prior constraints in required design time and real-world manufacturing.
The resulting venue-specific loudspeaker array that provides naturally even coverage for an entire audience. An added bonus and special feature of the new sound system at Santander is that the majority of the system is portable, including its main PA, amp racks, cabling and motors. In this way, it’s much akin to a road system, where portability makes the unit much more flexible for any venue and its customers.
‘My staff and I are big fans of the Clair Brothers C8-TrueFit system,’ says Farrar. ‘Compared to the one-hundred-plus shows that have brought in all different kinds of systems, I have not heard the room sound better than it does right now.’
More: www.clairbrothers.com
