Stuart Graham's fast-expanding company, Clarity in Sound, Light & Vision, has done much in the past year to bring high production values into the educational sector; their £70,000 sound, lighting and projection design and fit for Coombe Girls School was based on industry standard devices.
With a roll of 1,500 students (including 500 attending Sixth Form College) Coombe is one of the largest facilities of this kind in the country, with an excellent reputation for drama and music. Graham realized that the facilities would be heavily used, so durability and reliability were major considerations. Wherever possible, he turned to Denon's source catalogue for playback devices.
Graham says: "I have been using Denon ever since I came into this industry. Their reliability is great and the back-up second to none. Denon has become our staple source for this kind of installation - it's brilliant for schools, and we fitted out seven during the summer break alone."
Using Denon Professional rack kits, Clarity installed multiples of DRM-595P single cassette decks, DRW-695P twin cassette players, DCD-685P variable-speed CD players, DCD-485P CD player, DNT625 combination CD/cassette player, matched with Denon amplifiers, including the PMA255P and PMA100P. Graham commented: "What we have given the school is a very flexible system - and a huge amount of kit for the money."
His biggest accomplishment, Graham says, is the way in which he has combined the two sound-proofed Drama Rooms, with the help of a generous patch bay. "With eight speaker positions between the two rooms, any of the removable speakers can be connected to any of the channels on the amplifiers, and effectively two sound rigs and two lighting grids can combine as one or operate independently; the whole thing is designed for simplicity of operation."
In addition, Clarity provided electric and manual projection screens for both spaces and the whole room is curtain-tracked, with Hall Stage tracking.
Graham is also delighted at the way he has been able to design the control racks in the Recital Room to provide flexible control in the various 'breakout' practice rooms, offering mic talkback and easy switching between the Denon playback sources.
Other equipments choices made by Clarity included dimming from Strand Lighting, Zero 88 lighting control desks, Tannoy reference monitors, QSC amplifiers, Spirit mixing desks from Soundcraft and loudspeakers from Work and Martin Audio.
