The Missouri State University campus’ Carrington Hall can look back to 1908 for its opening – and a rich history of uses. Today, it is the university’s administration building, and its previously unused, antiquated auditorium has been renovated and modernised.
The auditorium has been converted into large multi-purpose classroom, primarily for hosting lectures but also to accommodate feature concerts, films and other special events.
For the hall’s audio system design, MSU called on acoustic and audiovisual consultants Coffeen Fricke & Associates – who were faced with an extremely reverberant environment created by its stone and concrete architecture.
‘The main seating area is a futuristic looking space designed with linear, angled florescent lighting on the underside of a gigantic cube that makes the large volume space more controllable, but also cuts off the view to the top of proscenium,’ CFA’s Bob Ledo explains. The room also features very low under-balcony seating space completely surrounded by concrete.
‘There was nowhere to put loudspeakers in the main seating area,’ says Ledo. ‘We couldn’t use source clusters because the cube was in the way. Using surface mounted distributed loudspeakers would have been our least costly solution but definitely the least aesthetically appealing.’
The solution lay in the low-profile Iconyx system from Renkus-Heinz: ‘We only needed two loudspeakers, which we shelf-mounted,’ Ledo says. ‘They blend into the environment so well, they’re not recogniseable as loudspeakers.’
The new audio system uses two active Iconyx IC16-R line arrays positioned on either side of the stage. The room also uses a simple presenter podium with a gooseneck microphone and a wireless lapel mic, all driven by Biamp Audia DSP.
CFA associate John Hodgson used Renkus-Heinz Rhaon DSP software to equalise the IC16-Rs. A Biamp Audia also provided very narrow parametric filters for room equalisation and narrow banding, a technique CFA has used for many years.
‘We were very successful in tuning the Iconyx,’ Hodgson explains. ‘Feedback is a non-issue. We’re able to walk right in front of the Iconyx with a lapel mic, without any feedback.’
Ledo believes that the proof of the system’s effectiveness is how little further work was required: ‘Iconyx gave us the pattern control and directionality we needed, as well as satisfying the aesthetic requirements of the space,’ he reports. ‘Everyone is extremely pleased with the results.’
More: www.renkus-heinz.com
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