Located in Lynn Haven, Northwest Florida, Crawford Mosley High School accommodates approximately 1,600 students and 120 classroom-based faculty members. In November 2017, the facility was extended with the new Gretchen Nelson Scott Performing Arts Center, enabling students and community members to enjoy performances by the school’s choir and drama department, as well as lectures, community theatre productions and other civic programs. In addition, the centre can be hired for external events and productions.

Designed by DAG Architects with acoustics by Siebein Associates, the centre’s auditorium features a Renkus-Heinz sound system designed by Chuck Walthall of Walthall & Associates Inc, and installed by Music Masters Pro AV Systems Group.

‘Of all the projects I’ve done in my career, this one was truly special,’ muses Walthall. ‘There were no major challenges with the room; it was a ground-up new build, acoustician Gary Siebein, architects Jack Baker and Owen Gipson of DAG, and I worked closely to tailor the room, the footprint, and the shape. It all came together on the front end and was verified before the first spade of dirt was turned. Les Stephenson and the Music Masters team did a terrific job on the install. It was a model project.’

The auditorium is essentially rectangular and seats 600 to 800. For the main system, Walthall chose an LR pair of Renkus-Heinz IC Live Gen5 ICL-F-Dual-RD digitally steered arrays. ‘For this system, we needed a small footprint for what was going to be an elegant interior,’ Walthall says. ‘We didn’t want to subject the space to suspended line arrays. With IC Live, we achieve the performance and coverage in a very compact column array. Between the architecture, the acoustical design, and the IC Live’s steerable beams, we had no issues. With no balcony to cover, the beams were steered in a manner to minimise energy striking the back wall.’

Stephenson’s Music Masters team mounted black Renkus-Heinz ICL-F-Dual-RD columns on the beige walls but thanks to their slim profile, the loudspeakers aren’t visually intrusive. ‘The room has black trim, and they naturally fit in,’ Walthall observes.

To complement the IC Live mains, Walthall specified two Renkus-Heinz CF151-2 powered, compact, two-way, Complex Conic loudspeakers as center fills. Four Renkus-Heinz CFX41 compact, four-inch, coaxial, two-way loudspeakers built into the front of the stage serve as front fills. ‘It’s our practice to use front fill in order to draw the audio image down for the front rows,’ Walthall explains. ‘We manipulate the signal in processing to draw the audible image down, so rather than appearing more from the side or from above, the image is front and centre.’

Some, but not all, events require additional very low frequency reinforcement. Walthall included two Renkus-Heinz PN112-Sub powered 12-inch subwoofers. ‘The PN112-Subs are portable, so the client can plug them in and set them onstage left and right when needed,’ he notes.

Four Renkus-Heinz CFX121M-8 two-way, Complex Conic loudspeakers provide stage monitoring. The CFX121M-8 features a 12-inch heavy-duty woofer and a 2-inch titanium HF driver and handles 500W of programme power. The system uses a QSC Q-Sys Core 110f audio processor, and an eight-channel Bose PM8500N amplifier provides power for the non-powered loudspeakers. An Allen & Heath GLD-series digital mixing system and Crestron control panels provide system control.

While any installation has its challenges, this one went well: ‘We provided the sound system and put it in, but it was a relatively easy task because it was a top-notch system design in a top-notch acoustic space, and we used top-notch loudspeakers ‘ says Les Stephenson, ‘The Renkus-Heinz system was a joy to program and tune, and it sounds fantastic.’

‘I am a proponent of self-powered, steerable loudspeakers,’ Walthall states, himself a 36-year veteran in the industry. The Renkus-Heinz products provide the coverage and quality we require for a variety of spaces. Mosley High School’s performing arts centre is a beautiful venue. The architecture and acoustics are enticing, the project was well coordinated from design to completion, and the result rendered a venue worthy of the fine arts.’