ELKHART,
Indiana – Located at Florida’s Pensacola Christian College, the Dale Horton
Auditorium (DHA) recently underwent a complete audio system upgrade featuring
HARMAN’s Crown CTs series amplifiers with PIP-BLU programmable input processor
cards. The DHA, one of the largest performing arts venues in the Southeast, has
a seating capacity of 3,500 and features a stunning interior that artfully
blends angular and curved surfaces, fabric and wood and multi-level seating and
houses a full working stage and orchestra pit.
“The Dale Horton Auditorium is an
absolute gem – with one glaring exception,” said John Fuqua, vice president of
Pensacola commercial audio and lighting contractor All Pro Sound. “The sound
system was the original one that was installed when the Dale Horton Auditorium
was built in 1986. It needed to be completely replaced.”
The facility needed a system that
was versatile and could accommodate its wide variety of activities including
theatrical and musical productions as well as the college’s own productions,
lectures, and worship services. The college uses the DHA continuously for all
types of events.
When it came to specifying the
amplifiers Fuqua’s team knew they didn’t simply need raw power – they needed
flexibility and control. “Crown CTs Series amplifiers with BLU-Link cards were
ideal for this application.” Crown CTs amps feature programmable input
processor cards that provide BLU-Link functionality. In addition to multiple
digital audio bus channels to and from the amplifier, the PIP-BLU card offers
an RJ-45 Ethernet jack for remote configuration, control and monitoring and
analog input and output connectors.
Twenty Crown CTs 3000, 10 CTs 1200
and seven CTs 600 amplifiers, all with PIP-BLU cards are installed in the
auditorium. The amps operate in conjunction with two BSS BLU-160 signal processors with digital audio bus, two BLUCARD-IN
input cards, six BLUCARD-OUT output cards and two BLU-BOB2 break-out-boxes.
“The Crown CTs Series amplifiers
with BLU-Link cards have remote monitoring and control capability, so we can
operate, control power sequencing and configure them from a central location,”
Fuqua noted. “We’re using the BSS Audio Soundweb London platform because we
already have it deployed in several other areas on campus including the Crowne
Centre auditorium, which is another large facility. Using BSS throughout
Pensacola Christian College ensures compatibility and familiarity with the
equipment and programming by everyone who uses it.” In addition to the Crown
and BSS components, a Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixing console is used in the Dale
Horton Auditorium for front of house mixing.
“The Crown amplifiers and BSS
components work flawlessly together. Actually, the biggest challenge in the DHA
installation was the fact that it was labor intensive – we had to completely
replace the existing 26-year-old system and put in a new one that was ready to
go in the space of five weeks. The result was worth it – the new system is far
superior in overall sound quality and speech intelligibility, and the amps are
much more adaptable to whatever kind of program they want to hold in the DHA,
from a single lecturer to a complete theatrical production,” added Fuqua.
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