The refurbishment of School Hall at Eton College provided an opportunity for HHB Communications to showcase Roland’s REAC system and M-300 mixer.

Specified by HHB’s Andrew Hingley, an M-300 has been installed alongside S-1608 and S-0816 digital stageboxes to form a multi-function sound system as part of

a major refurbishment to the hall.

Taking almost a year to complete – and due to the hall’s ornate structure – the sound system installation had to be as discrete as possible. A large building with the mixing position virtually the furthest point from the stage, Hingley had to find a way to cover the intervening distance while avoiding unsightly cable runs.

The hall is generally used for assemblies where a simple mic and playback is sufficient but can be required to cope with big band jazz concerts and multitrack recording – so the mixer had to offer extensive functionality. Because of the distance to be covered, an accessible and straightforward digital system provided the best solution. Instant recall of saved set-ups was also important as the system is to be used by less experienced users and students.

The M-300 is a powerful and compact digital mixing console, offering a substantial mixing capability with 32 mixing channels, LCR outputs, eight aux buses and four matrices. Built-in REAC allows flexible system expansion and as part of the V-Mixing System including Digital Snakes, Personal Mixers and Multi Channel Recording, the M-300 provides a scalable solution for medium sized venues and is also lightweight and transportable.

The sound system includes powerful front speakers for music, three pairs of delay fills and one pair of back fill speakers along the sides and rear of the hall to ensure a clear and even coverage of voice amplification. The loudspeaker specification meant the mixer had to cater for delay management for the fill outputs while supporting for front of house and stage foldback.

Using the Roland system meant that HHB could run a single Cat5e cable instead of a traditional 32-channel snake. The built-in delays and eight band parametric EQ on every output also meant that tuning of the system for the hall was a quick and straightforward process.

More: www.hhb.co.uk
More: www. rolandsg.co.uk