EDMOND, OK – For its auditorium renovation, Edmond Memorial High School (EMHS) followed PMK Consultants' recommendation for a combination of Tannoy VQ 100s, VQ 60s, V12s and CVS 6s.
The goal, according to Earl Kirkpatrick, EMHS' junior/senior principal, was for a "top of the line" transformation in terms of "construction, the seating, the lighting and the sound. It was an existing space, but they basically gutted it and then redid everything."
Fixed approximately 24 feet off the ground and 10 feet below the ceiling, two Tannoy VQ 100s make up the center cluster of the LCR system, noted Dave Stearns, who had been with PMK's Dallas office in the early stages of the project and has since formed Sound Endeavors, an AV consulting firm.
Two more VQ 60s are located to at the extreme right and left of the proscenium. Directly below, two V12s – one per side – act as down fills. A number of third-party front fill speakers are also built into the stage lip.
Elsewhere, in the back of house areas, the workshop, dressing rooms, lobby area and hallways, Tannoy CVS 6s are used to provide distributed audio throughout the venue.
The system also incorporates a comprehensive package of Sennheiser microphones, a third party monitor system, a Yamaha LS 9 console, two BSS Soundweb London DSPs and a suite of QSC CX Series amps to drive the Tannoy VQs, V12s and CVS 6s.
With the VQs covering most of the room, choosing the V12s was a matter of specifying a companion product to provide down fill in what was a very small area that needed help. "Like rows five to nine – an area just about eight chairs wide," said Stearns. "And after I listened to the system I went, okay the V12s are going to be high passed way up. I don't need it adding any mid/bass to the room – let's just fill in what's missing."
PMK's design called for the Dual Concentric CMS 601 DCs, but the school went with Tannoy CVS 6s to meet cost-saving objectives. Stearns added that the lobby's three different ceiling heights presented some challenges. The ceiling ranges from 8 feet high near the entry way to 15 feet high across the middle section of the space to about 24 feet high in each of two side areas.
Tannoy was specified for the build from very early on, Stearns said. "All the way back to the earliest version of the EASE model in 2008 – As soon as we had the data on the Tannoy VQs, they were in there. This is one of the first U.S. installs of the product," he added.
As a product, a mid/high box along the lines of Tannoy's VQ boxes is something Stearns said there has been an appetite for in the industry for a very long time. "The reason for that is when you take a traditional two-way box – a twelve and a horn, or whatever – you can only time align it on axis. Once you get above or below axis, one driver or the other is closer to you, so you have an off-axis phase problem. The only way to fix that is to put highs and mids in the same horn. It's been tried a bunch of different ways. A lot of the reason for horn loading the mids is that we wanted to have them have the same directivity as the high frequencies. The problem is that one driver can't do all that without blowing up."
The Tannoy VQ series addresses that issue, Stearns added. "This is highs firing through mids – two compression drivers – one firing through the other one and using the same magnet structure. So the two diaphragms are within fractions of an inch of each other. With a passive crossover network it sums quite well in phase, so we get highs and mids in the same horn, the off-axis response is real smooth and everything falls off together."
The core benefit to using Tannoy, and specifically the VQs, Stearns said, was that "the Tannoys are pretty accurate and they are very flat. If you've got a bad recording they're going to tell you."
And when you have a good recording of a great song?
Well, the response, frankly, can be an emotional one. It certainly was at EMHS. The fact that the noncommissioned system was not sounding its best may have contributed to that, Stearns said. And although the problem had nothing to do with the technology, but rather with side issues that had cropped up during the install, the teachers who would be using the system most heavily were still concerned – at least until they heard the rig in action after the final tuning…
"It's nine in the morning and the teachers are coming in to listen. We've been there all night and I've finally got things to where I like them enough to let people hear them. I grab the Beatles Cirque Du Soleil Love Remix CD, and hit play on track one, which is ‘Because'." They may not have known why the room sounded less than ideal before, "they just knew it did," Stearns said. "But now, all of a sudden, it was translating straight from the boys to them – crystal clear – and I've got the choir director and drama teacher sitting in the back of the room listening, and they're weeping."
Going forward, Kirkpatrick said he's pleased with the result. There's still a learning curve to the usage of the new systems, but without a doubt the auditorium gets high marks from all the people and departments who use it. "We haven't had any complaints and we do a lot in there. It's booked, all the time," said Kirkpatrick. "And that's why we don't rent it out to people outside of the school very often, because we keep it so busy – I know from the people that use the auditorium at our site as well as at the district level, that's why they keep coming back. They've just really enjoyed the facility."
For more information, please visit www.tannoy.com.
