Jands and Fredon Industries supply solution for Pringle Building’s auditorium
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Fredon Industries was contracted to design, supply and install a flexible A/V system into a multi purpose auditorium in the new Pringle Building at Oxford Falls Grammar School. The Pringle Building includes new performing arts facilities such as music tutor rooms, dance and drama rehearsal rooms and an intimate theatre with retractable-tiered seating and extensions to a resource learning centre.
For the project, the school wished to expand its sports facility into a multi-use arena to cater for both sports and the performing arts. In preparation for this, a hole was cut into the side of the venue’s existing basketball court and a flat floor stage area was installed. In addition to this, a lecture theatre (which doubles as a drama and dance studio) resides behind the stage area.
The client specified that the sound system had to cover the main auditorium area as well as the drama/dance studio and the lecture theatre – and all three spaces needed to interlink.
‘These can operate as three discrete spaces if required,’ explained Nick Orsatti, Fredon’s audio visual manager. ‘It becomes interesting when the dance and drama studio becomes a stage for one of two modes of operation; either with the audience in the auditorium or with the audience in the lecture theatre for a more intimate venue. So for large school presentations such as gala nights they can use the large auditorium but for the average musical or drama performance they use the other option without interfering with any sports activities.’
Mr Orsatti designed different speaker solutions to support the different modes of operation, in particular a JBL VRX system flown as a left-centre-right configuration to cater to the wide auditorium when large school productions take place. Meanwhile, the left and right hangs each comprise of three VRX928-LA with a VRX915 subwoofer on top whilst the centre cluster comprises four VRX928-LA for extra vertical coverage.
‘It sounds fantastic,’ he enthused. ‘We modelled it in Ease because we were very concerned about the hard surfaces of the basketball court. Initially the school was looking at using a traditional, 15-inch horn type of scenario but we thought we needed a solution with better pattern control and dispersion characteristics. By modelling the space, providing precise aiming and using a curved line array system, this allowed us to focus the energy away from the reflective areas. The school was quite surprised at how much energy the system delivers and it really does sound great.’
Crown amplifiers are used throughout, with three Crown XTi 4002s powering the auditorium PA system, a Crown XLS 1000 for the lecture theatre and a Crown XTi 1002 for the dance studio.
Additionally, four JBL Control 30 speakers reside on the stage, and two are configured so they can act as side fill when required. A further two JBL Control 30 speakers point back towards the lecture theatre to provide FOH for the small presentation mode. The dance theatre also has two MRX512M fold back speakers. Two JBL Control 29AV speakers are installed into the lecture theatre for stand-alone operation.
‘All of this is tied in by the BSS Blu-100 audio DSP, which is fabulous, and there is provision for live mixing,’ Mr Orsatti added.
Shure microphones are used throughout and include a MX410C lectern microphone and a number of ULX wireless microphone systems complete with wireless antenna boosters and receiver antennas.
Jands supplied the stage drapes as well as Jands H500P-VX motorised hoists and Jands JLX-Pro lighting bars over the stage.