Briarcrest Christian School offers a comprehensive Fine Arts programme, for which it has recently opened the Sparks Chapel Fine Arts Center to stage its music and theatre productions, as well as other on-campus activities.

For its audio needs, the school called in Tennessee Concert Sound, a design/build audio services firm that is also involved in sound production. Owner Stewart Tritt and Jason Long, who handled sales and system design for the project, devised a set-up based around a DiGiCo SD10 mixing console and a PA system comprising 22 DAS Aero 8A pline array modules, supported by four LX-218CRA subwoofers.

‘The Sparks Chapel Fine Arts Center is a multipurpose facility that seats 980 people,’ Long explains. ‘In addition to its use as a performance venue, school assemblies take place here and the space is also used as a worship facility. For this reason, it was very important that, in addition to providing excellent music reproduction capabilities, the system also had to be capable of very clear, highly-intelligible speech delivery. After careful consideration, we elected to deploy a DAS Audio setup that took advantage of the company’s experience in line array technology.’

Due to ceiling height restrictions and room aesthetic considerations of the school – which is an independent coeducational college preparatory school located in Tennessee – the primary system is comprised of six flown LCR loudspeaker clusters, each comprised of Aero 8A enclosures.

To meet line-of-sight considerations, three clusters are positioned above the front edge of the stage with a delay (LCR) behind the main catwalk. This arrangement ensures minimum visibility of the loudspeakers from the audience. Across the front of the stage are four recessed areas housing additional Aero 8As for front fill.

For low-frequency support, there are two hang points for the subwoofers to the left and right of the centre main hang, with each suspension point supporting two LX-218CRA enclosures. These are flown in a cardioid pattern. This set-up is accompanied by two DAS Avant powered 12A, two-way cabinets for overhead stage monitoring, along with four DAS Road 12A two-way powered stage monitors. A dbx Driverack 4800 serves as the system controller while the DiGiCo SD10 console with four D-racks is connected via fibre-optic cabling.

‘Being a Fine Arts centre, it was considered critical that the system provide first class support for the Briarcrest One Voice a capella vocal ensemble, which demands every note be communicated clearly and evenly throughout the listening area,’ Long says. ‘We’re confident this system meets our client’s expectations. We’ve also been very impressed with DAS Audio’s track record for reliability and that, too, factored into our decision.

‘Working in conjunction with Ryan Stone, the school’s Technical Director, we’ve created a sound reinforcement system that delivers exceptional audio performance and is capable of addressing a wide range of activities. Make no mistake, this is one cutting-edge sound system.’