The building has suffered little alteration and English Heritage described its 'overall level of intactness' as 'remarkable', observing that its characteristics were 'unusually lavish for a Secondary school'. This year, work was completed on a multi-million pound project to create a hub at Parkside for public services in the town.
The scheme, run jointly between Bromsgrove District and Worcester County Councils will see the building become home to Bromsgrove Library, register office, Job Centre Plus, Bromsgrove District Council staff, as well as offering a number of rooms available for private functions.
What was formerly the school hall at Parkside now operates as a multi-function area, hosting everything from council meetings to Zumba classes and it was to this carefully restored venue that integrators County Infrastructure Services in consultation with Audiologic were invited.
The brief for the main hall at Parkside could be considered to be relatively straightforward. A sound reinforcement system that could be used for speeches, AV presentations, some live performance and exercise classes was required. In addition the client required a wireless conferencing system for meetings and discussions staged primarily by the council but occasionally for other corporate users. An audio induction loop completed the basic brief.
Given the multi-use nature of the hall, it was important that the systems were user friendly and flexible enough to cater for the different applications required. As is very often the case with installations in listed buildings and heritage sites the execution of the job rarely matches the apparent simplicity of the brief and representatives of English Heritage were present throughout to ensure complete compliance.
The heritage nature of the environment meant that the CIS were constrained to a high degree with regard to the integrity of the interior and so solutions had to be carefully chosen. Parkside's conferencing needs were met by beyerdynamic's Quinta system. Quinta's high level of wireless encryption provides protection against unauthorised listening - something essential for the conducting of confidential business.
The system at Parkside comprises a Quinta CU Central Control Unit, 2 Quinta MU23 Chairman Units and a further 47 MU21 Delegate units. Up to 10 units can be charged, stored and transported in a CC2 Complete Charging Case, completing a neat, highly efficient, user friendly solution.
A Sennheiser infra-red induction loop based on one SZI 101 2-Watt radiator with integrated modulator and SZI 1015T 2-Watt slave radiator was installed for maximum efficiency and minimum physical impact on the fabric of the hall.
For general sound reinforcement in the hall, four Ecler Audeo 108 2-way 8" full range speakers driven by an Ecler MPA 4-400R 4 channel amplifier were installed and a digital mixer was used in conjunction with a Yamaha Blu-Ray/DVD and CD/Media players. Ecler's Audeo Series of loudspeakers was developed in collaboration with the prestigious Italian design group Giugiaro in order to ensure an aesthetic that matched their excellent sound quality.
To meet every requirement of a multi-use audio system Sennheiser ew312G3 Lavalier and ew335G3 Handheld wireless microphone systems were included.
Andy Lewis, marketing manager at Audiologic, comments, "Overcoming the challenges presented in this sort of environment isn't easy - especially when you factor in the range of uses to be taken into account. However, at Audiologic we don't believe that a problem should be met with a compromise."
Nick Evans AV Manager at County Infrastructure Service (CIS) adds, "At CIS we have a very good relationship with Audiologic and when we are asked to be involved with the design and install of AV and conferencing provision at Parkside, we worked closely with them on a professional solution that met the very specific requirements of the architect and client."
(Jim Evans)
