Constructed in the late 1960s, the Abilene Civic Center is a spacious, multi-purpose venue with a live performance theatre, exhibition hall and large conference centre that can be subdivided to accommodate as many as four simultaneous events.
Partly on account of its age, the conference centre’s audio system did not meet the voice intelligibility or audio quality expectations of its many banquets, meetings, press conferences and other events, especially those using modern presentation or musical performance. Consequently, the city decided to upgrade the audio system.
The requirement was for an easy-to-use system for simple meetings, but also the ability to host events with dramatic or musical performances. It should also offer a modern control system that would make it easy to configure the conference centre for one large or multiple simultaneous events. And it must provide both highly intelligible voice reinforcement and high-quality music production.
The city contacted Jerrold Stevens, of consulting firm Marsh PMK, who designed a highly flexible system with wireless iPad set-up and control. Simple events can be configured for hands-off operation with one or two Sennheiser wireless microphones or meeting planners can request one of four Yamaha digital mixers for events with musical or dramatic performances.
Auto-mixing, signal processing and control are provided by a BSS London DSP with iPad interface and the system includes seventy-eight Community D Series model D8 two-way coaxial ceiling loudspeakers powered by Lab.gruppen amplifiers. Consultant Stevens commented that he included the D8s as an alternative in his specification for their true coaxial design, high sensitivity and wide coverage.
Electro-Acoustics installed the conference centre’s new audio system. Sales Manager Ryan Walker noted that the Community D8s easily filled the performance specifications and helped meet the city’s budget requirements. Electro-Acoustics Inc completed the system in time for a banquet celebrating Martin Luther King’s 2016 birthday. ‘The system operated flawlessly – and it sounded great,’ Walker reports.
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