HONOLULU — President Barack Obama’s alma mater, Punahou School, recently installed a new Electro-Voice XLE super-compact line array sound system in the school’s theater with the help from Audissey, a Honolulu-based AV and control technologies provider.
The new system fulfills the long-held dream of Punahou’s technical director, Brian Gilhooly, to equip the theater with a left-right system design to replace the building’s center cluster, which Audissey installed at Punahou nearly 15 years earlier.
“Audissey has been involved with the campus for many, many years, and we came to the school about 15 years ago when the administration was remodeling the theater,” said John Gardner of Audissey.
“We designed a decent center cluster to act as the main PA for the space. But it became clear to the school and to us that the system needed an upgrade to meet the school’s changing needs. The new technical director at the school had his heart set on a left-right design, so that’s when we began communicating about getting a new system for the school.”
The 680-seat theater’s new XLE system comprises 14 boxes hung seven per side in a left-right design. Three P3000RL amplifiers power the main hangs, and a single P3000RL drives the system’s two Xsub boxes. EV CP2200 amplifiers drive the monitor system.
“We decided to go with Electro-Voice after attending a seminar that (EV reps) Quantum Sales & Technology hosted here,” Gardner said. “They had an XLD array at the event — a system we’d heard great things about in terms of its performance to size ratio. Since the school’s new system was to be used for vocal reinforcement 95 percent of the time, we went with the XLE based almost entirely on its reputation, and weren’t disappointed.”
As might be expected, Gardner added, the budget was a major consideration. But “the XLE’s price point allowed us to build the ideal system for the space, with no compromises — our clients are very pleased.”
Another benefit to the theater’s new system is the IRIS-Net control and supervision software.
“IRIS-Net could not be easier as a plug-and-play solution,” Gardner said. “I simply open it up, specify whatever speaker components I need to control, and drop their parameters into the amplifier. It took 10 minutes at the most. It’s a very well put together, reliable system. And having the system presets locked-in means there’s no worry about operator error. They turn everything on and off via a SurgeX SEQ, which provides a toggle to the RCM-24 module on the RL amps and it’s done. EV has made everything incredibly simple.
“Nowadays, most all loudspeaker manufacturers make a decent black box, so it can be hard to find your way to what’s best or most reliable or easiest to use,” Gardner added. “We chose the XLE because of EV’s reputation for the highest quality audio, the outstanding support received from Quantum, and beyond that, the brilliance of these particular boxes and the simplicity of IRIS-Net. The system is smooth and the boxes provide uniform coverage, and the array software is super-convenient. All points put together is what sets EV apart. Punahou School is extremely happy with the quality of the system they now have.”
For more information, please visit www.audissey.net and http://irisnet.electrovoice.com.
