GREENSBORO, GA – The Greensboro Auditorium, built in 1939, is today's restored Festival Hall, home to classic music, musical comedy, plays, cabaret, country/bluegrass, jazz, gospel and children's music and performances. And it's also home to a single Danley Sound Labs SH-100B combined loudspeaker and subwoofer – which delivers 100 percent of the venue's PA – installed by dB Audio & Video.
The venue's $2.5 million in renovation funding was secured by the Greensboro Downtown Development Authority, the Oconee Performing Arts Society (OPAS) and Linger Longer Communities, and dB Audio & Video systems advisor J. Frank Locklear was convinced that the auditorium could get a fully-functioning, high-fidelity sound reinforcement system using just one of the Danley units.
And no, the MSRP for Danley's SH-100B is not $2.5 million. The historic structure, built in the waning days of the Great Depression, underwent total renovation, with a new addition on one end for the stage and backstage area. The renovation turned the front end of the building into a lobby and added a second story to accommodate a control room for audio and video with windows into the performance area overlooking the audience seating.
The single SH-100B, the only PA speaker in the room, is positioned against the ceiling and proscenium wall. With its 110- by 110-degree coverage pattern, the SH-100B can cover every seat in the house. The SH-100B combines Danley Sound Labs' Synergy Horn full-range technology with its Tapped Horn subwoofer technology for flat output from 50 Hz to 17 kHz.
QSC RMX series power amplifiers drive the main speaker and stage monitors, with Xilicia providing DSP for input conditioning, modest loudspeaker conditioning, and additional output for two Community CPL23 monitors in the control booth. The sound system conveniently locates microphone inputs at center stage and at the rear of the proscenium wall on the left and right. A Yamaha MG series mixer handles all microphone inputs, including wireless microphone receivers located at mix position in the booth.
"Whenever possible, inviolable laws of physics dictate that it is preferable to design a sound system around a single point source," Locklear said. "With multiple sources, the patterns invariably interact, either directly in the air or after reflecting off surfaces. Such a process adds and subtracts the signal across a range of frequencies, with different additions and subtractions occurring at different seats due to the different arrival times of the multiple signals. That makes it impossible to 'fix' the problem with equalization. With a single point source, the direct signal is exactly the same at each seat, and the filtering of the reflected signal is kept to a minimum."
The architect designed the new venue with some of the sidewalls built at angles to help eliminate standing waves. Nevertheless, the sidewalls at both the stage and the rear wall created unwanted reflections that were detrimental to speech intelligibility. dB Audio & Video provided and installed two-inch fabric wrapped, acoustic panels in a variety of sizes and shapes with colors that blend with the décor. The treatment absorbs some of these problem reflections and thus makes the room much more conducive to speech. However, it does not deaden the room too much, and music still sounds natural and lively as it interacts with the otherwise well-considered acoustics.
The first performance at Festival Hall featured actor John Lithgow, and audience members were surprised to realize that the full, vibrant sound was emanating from just one loudspeaker above the stage.
For more information, please visit www.danleysoundlabs.com.
