Menlo School, located in Atherton, California, recently added a new athletic center to the school campus. The 54,000 square-foot, bi-level complex features two gymnasiums with complete support facilities, a multi-purpose room and two classrooms.
In keeping with the school’s philosophy of providing the very best for their students, the plans included the installation of a top of the line audio system to support the many events and activities that the complex would host. To power this new system, there was only one choice of amplifier fit for purpose; Lab.gruppen’s C Series.
Graham Cooper, vice president of the contracting division at Leo’s Professional Audio and Jerry Liles, Leo’s RME, headed up the project with direction from Menlo School’s David McAdoo, director of operations and construction, Andrew Hale, construction analyst. Rocky Giannetta, with Perform Acoustics, assisted the team in the audio system design and commissioning.
“The new facility provides a lot of flexibility for the athletic department and for the school in general,” explains 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
The center’s main gym, which provides seating for up to 1,000, can be set up as one NCAA regulation-size basketball court or three full-size basketball courts or four regulation-size volleyball courts.
Cooper decided to utilize 8 loudspeaker clusters, comprising of Tannoy’s VQ Series modular point-source elements to cover the bleacher and traffic areas. The court itself is covered by two down-firing Tannoy V12HP.
The system is powered with three Lab.gruppen C Series C 28:4 four-channel 2800 W amplifiers and two Lab.gruppen C 20:8 eight-channel 2000 W amplifiers to power the athletic center’s audio system. The installation-dedicated Lab.gruppen amplifiers are controlled and monitored by a Lab.gruppen’s innovative NLB-60E NomadLink Bridge Network Controller which allows a laptop computer running Lab.gruppen DeviceControl software to monitor and control the amplifiers remotely.
“The Lab.gruppen amps are workhorses, and you can really count on them thanks to the tour-honed reliability of their product designs” Cooper adds. “This system is going to get a lot of use and it needs to be rock solid. I knew they would do the job and then some.”
“The audio quality is terrific and the clusters put the sound exactly where we wanted it,” Cooper adds. “We rack-mounted the key system components in a closet located off the main gymnasium,” Cooper explains. “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.”
Multipurpose
The upper level is comprised of the Wellness Center – a training space outfitted with cardio vascular and weight training equipment – two classrooms dedicated to health education, and a multipurpose room.
Cooper specified a self-contained sound system featuring eight Tannoy CMS 601 DC BS ceiling speakers and a Tannoy PowerVS 10BP subwoofer to distribute the sound evenly while providing the low end required for dance and aerobic activities.
The amplifiers, mixer and other support gear are rack mounted and located discreetly in a recessed area of the room. The Tannoy ceiling speakers are again powered by a Lab.gruppen C Series C 10:4 power amplifier.
“The entire athletic space is very state-of-the art,” Cooper concludes. “It was a big project with a big objective – create an environment that was flexible enough to meet the growing and changing needs of Menlo School – and one that I think we accomplished. More importantly the school, parents, teachers and students really like it, which is what matters most.”