ATHERTON, CA – For Menlo School's new 54,000 square-foot, bi-level athletic center, designed and built by Kevin Hart Architecture and Vance Brown Builders, Leo's Professional Audio provided a complete AV solution, including audio gear from Tannoy and Lab.gruppen.
Leo's Professional Audio' Graham Cooper, vice president of the contracting division, Jerry Liles, RME, headed up the project on behalf of Menlo School's David McAdoo and Andrew Hale, construction analyst. Rocky Giannetta, with Perform Acoustics, assisted the team in the audio system design and commissioning.
Before the addition of the athletic center, which includes two gymnasiums, a multi-purpose room and two classrooms, Menlo School's 800 middle and upper school students shared gym space with nearby Menlo College.
"The new facility provides a lot of flexibility for the athletic department and for the school in general," said Cooper. "Our goal was to create a digital audio network and production level audio system that could accommodate athletic events and high-end A/V presentations very easily."
The Main Gymnasium
Two down-firing Tannoy V12HPs cover the basketball court within the 1,000-capacity main gym. For the bleacher and traffic areas, Cooper used eight loudspeaker clusters, each consisting of a Tannoy VQ 85DF and VS 15DR – three clusters each for the home and away bleachers, and the two remaining clusters on the ends of the court. Leo's affixed the clusters, with white cabinets to match the white ceiling beams, with custom mounting brackets, and used standard Tannoy brackets for the V12HPs.
For larger events the gym is equipped with a portable audio rack loaded with two wireless Sennheiser ew 135 G3 handheld wireless microphone systems, Denon CD and blu-ray players, and provisions for eight additional wireless microphones along with Rane AM1 and AM2 automixers for analog to digital conversion.
Rane AM1 and AM2 automixers feed the main system by way of custom Cat5 snakes connected to floor or wall input boxes located throughout the room. The input boxes are access points to the MediaMatrix CobraNet network that serves as the backbone of the audio system.
"In addition to Cat5, the boxes offer a variety of input connectors to accommodate iPods, computers, DVD players and other source devices," said Cooper. "It provides the school with the flexibility to easily provide a digital feed to the main system without using the portable rack."
Rane RAD devices convert the analog input to digital. The signal is then fed through a network switch to the main equipment rack.
A Kramer RC-8IR 8-button remote control allows source selections and some control of the video switcher from the rack.
Central Distribution Point
"We rack-mounted the key system components in a closet located off the main gymnasium," Cooper said. "The main equipment rack serves as the central distribution point for a digital audio network that feeds the main gym, the west gym, the distributed sound system and the lobby."
The main equipment rack has a MediaMatrix system that feeds the complex's Cobranet network.
Digital audio feeds from access points throughout the building are processed through two Rane Mongoose 8 port digital audio networks, which send the signal on to a MediaMatrix NION N6 32 × 32 digital signal processor equipped with a NIO-8ml II 8 channel input module and three NIO-80 8-channel output modules. The NION N6 is also connected to the life safety system and provides for system muting.
Eight programmable Media Matrix X Control wall panels are located throughout the complex, allowing users to control the Media Matrix system remotely.
A 3U Numark video monitor allows the operator to see what is showing on the various projections screens located throughout the complex from the convenience of the equipment room.
The system is powered by three Lab.gruppen C Series C 28:4 four-channel 2800 watt amplifiers and two Lab.gruppen C 20:8 eight-channel 2000 watt amplifiers – "workhorses," according to Cooper – which are controlled and monitored by a Lab.gruppen NLB 60E NomadLink Bridge & Network Controller, accessed via a remote laptop running Lab.gruppen DeviceControl software.
The design also provides assisted listening systems for both gymnasiums. Two Listen LT-800 FM transmitters are rack-mounted in the equipment room. Each gym is equipped with 8 LR-300 FM beltpack receivers and a LA-321 8-unit charging case to ensure the systems are ready to go when needed. Additional assistive listening accessories include 6 LA-166 neck loops and 10 LA-164 ear speakers for students and visitors.
West Gymnasium
Cooper equipped the smaller West gym, which seats 175, with a self-powered Renkus Heinz ICL-FR digital steerable column loudspeaker. He noted that it "provides excellent coverage and a high SPL." It's mounted at the far end of the gym and covers the entire space. As with the main gym, a recessed floor pocket with various input options provides easy access to the system. For bigger events the main gym's portable audio rack can be used in this space as well.
Multipurpose Room
The complex's upper level includes the Wellness Center, two classrooms and a multipurpose room. For the latter, Cooper specified eight Tannoy CMS 601 DC BS ceiling speakers and a Tannoy PowerVS 10BP subwoofer.
The amplifiers, mixer and other support gear are rack mounted and located in a recessed area of the room. A Lab.gruppen C Series C 10:4 power amplifier powers the Tannoy ceiling speakers. The system also includes a Rane CP52S mixer, Denon DRA-397 receiver/preamp, Denon DC-C615 CD player and Samson Fitness HS wireless headset.
Each of the classrooms are also equipped with four CMS 601BM ceiling speakers powered by an Atlas PA601 60W amplifier. All classroom audio and video sources are routed through and controlled by a SP Controls system which is housed in a wall-mounted SmartBox.
The stand-alone AV system in the lobby, which can receive an audio and video feed from the main gymnasium, is supported with eight Tannoy CMS 601DC self-powered ceiling speakers. A distributed audio system also provides audio coverage from the main gym system to the complex's offices, locker rooms, conference rooms, hallways and bathrooms.
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