District Six Fine Arts Center – Versatile Sound for a Versatile Auditorium

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November 11, 2014

Roebuck, SC | November, 2014 – The newly-built District Six Fine Arts Center in Roebuck, South Carolina is a multi-use auditorium that serves all the schools in the area, as well as the community overall. Located on the Dorman High School Campus, the Center’s 1,500 seat auditorium hosts a diverse roster of events year round, from theatrical productions and concerts, to movies, recitals, lectures, and convocations.

In designing the sound system for the new facility, Raleigh, NC-based Theater Consultants Collaborative specified Renkus-Heinz VARIA modular point source line array loudspeakers. The main front of house system comprises left and right flown arrays of eight VARIA VA101-7 7.5 degree cabinets and one VA101-15 15 degree cabinet.

“VARIA was an ideal choice for this venue because its variable coverage pattern enabled us to use fewer boxes to achieve the same coverage,” explains David Clyburn of Roebuck, SC-based Musicraft, the company handling the installation. “The result was a reduction in both cost and weight, as well as improved sightlines. And the directional capabilities of the VARIA arrays eliminated the need for separate under balcony coverage.”

VARIA’s modular design enables cabinets to be easily configured as flown vertical arrays, horizontal arrays, or ground stacked. Self-powered and networkable, VARIA’s range of vertical and horizontal dispersion angles and Renkus-Heinz’s unique Transitional Waveguides make it easy to configure systems to cover even the most challenging spaces.

For low frequency reinforcement, six DR18-2 Direct Radiating Subwoofers are ground stacked in concrete reinforced chambers to the left and right of the stage. “The subwoofers are installed three to each side in cardioid configuration, 16 feet above the stage floor,” adds Clyburn.

To address coverage in the balcony, four PN121 two-way Complex Conic systems were installed. Finally, 20 PNX81 two-way systems were installed around the auditorium for surround sound reinforcement, creating a true 7.1 surround sound environment in the auditorium.

Despite a tight timeline and other logistical challenges that accompanied the construction project, Clyburn reports the system has been well received. “The VARIA system is easy to configure, which helped us meet some very short deadlines. Ultimately, the system sounds great, and school and community officials are very pleased with the results.”