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Calgary, Alberta, Canada | December, 2008 – A high powered Renkus-Heinz ceiling loudspeaker system is at the heart of a unique acoustical solution for a large, multi-purpose dividable lecture room at the Great Hall of the Centre for Continuous Learning at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta. The Great Hall is a LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ energy efficient design with exposed concrete surfaces that warm up and then release the stored energy back into the building.
The room being walled in concrete with tall glass windows posed a tough challenge for consultant Fred Gilpin and local contractor Apex Audio Visual. The room can be used either as a single large space or can be reconfigured as two or three smaller seminar rooms by giant brushed stainless steel room dividers. Either way the space presents a battery of hard, reflective surfaces. A single audio system was required to serve the needs of both configurations and, the design brief called for high quality vocal reinforcement for lectures as well as moderate music playback of pre-recorded sources. Additionally, the complete system is capable of 5.1 surround sound for movie presentations.
Analysis of the acoustics in EASE by Renkus-Heinz Application Engineer Jonas Domkus inspired Fred Gilpin to devise a radical design, deploying Renkus-Heinz CS-66 and CS-99 multi-driver Co- Entrant loudspeakers mounted on the ceiling and adjacent to each projection screen. This allowed the three separate areas to be driven independently or as one space. The multi-driver Co-Entrant technology delivers the high SPLs and directivity necessary to achieve good intelligibility from the 30 ft ceiling height.
The system is under DSP control and programmed so the acoustic image can be located to whichever of the five video screens are being used around the space. When the room is used fully open, the audio image shifts to the screen at one end, with the rest of the loudspeakers providing timed delay fills.
Says Gilpin, “The primary reason for choosing the CS Series loudspeakers is the pattern control they provide down into the lower frequencies of the vocal range. The multi-driver Co-Entrant technology delivers the high SPL required by the 30 ft ceiling height and allowed us to keep virtually all of the sound off the exposed hard surfaces. The CS Series speakers are providing a high degree of intelligibility in an extremely challenging acoustical environment.”
“In the Faculty of Continuing Education & Extension we talk about the power of possibility that education can bring to people’s lives,” said Norma MacIntosh, Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education & Extension. “The Centre for Continuous Learning will help Mount Royal turn possibility into reality for thousands of learners.”