19.10.10
VSU overhauls auditorium sound
Virginia State University (VSU) in the USA has upgraded the audio system in its Colson Auditorium with a solution based on Community Professional Loudspeaker’s Entasys three-way column line arrays.
The university’s history dates back to the period following the American Civil War. It was founded as the nation's first state-supported institution of higher learning for black students. Former VSU students include Reginald Lewis, entrepreneur and first black CEO of Beatrice Foods; The Honorable James Coleman, the first African American to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court; actor James Avery and jazz hall-of-fame musician Billy Taylor.
The school's Colson Auditorium was recently updated with an audio system centred around a pair of Community Professional Loudspeakers' Entasys line arrays.
Project integrator, Michael Kidd of Richmond-based CCS Presentation Systems, said: "It's a multi-purpose room that's primarily used for lectures and other spoken word presentations. It's not all that large - it seats around 250 - but it's a rectangular space that's fairly reflective, and it's always had problems with intelligibility."
The building's flat roof had sustained some water damage during storms, and the needed repairs brought with them the opportunity to upgrade some of the auditorium's infrastructure. "They were looking at ways to improve the existing system, a distributed configuration of older in-ceiling speakers," said Kidd. "It was noisy, coverage had always been spotty, and the more we talked with them, the more it became clear that it made more sense to upgrade the whole system."
Kidd subsequently chose Community’s Entasys line-arrays. Crown amplification powers the system, and an AMX touch panel selects between DVD, computer, mic mixer and other sources.
"The hall's been pretty busy since it's reopened,” said Kidd. “And we've had lots of great comments on the sound. I felt really good about it, because we were kind of sticking our necks out by recommending a new product we hadn't tried before. Not that I had any doubts, but the truth is the EntasysNTASYS system really exceeded our expectations."