At the heart of each Community Campus is a new school (in most cases more than one), but each also has facilities for much wider community use. Thus, the assembly hall of each school is also designed for use as a community cinema, theatre, live music venue and space for a range of other events. To facilitate this multi-purpose use, a Yamaha system has been installed at North Inch (Perth), Loch Leven (Kinross) and Strathearn (Crieff) Community Campuses, with Breadalbane (Aberfeldy) due for completion later this year.
Designed and specified by Paul McGreal, installation project manager at Edinburgh-based A/V specialists Black Light, the Yamaha systems were supplied by Edinburgh's Warehouse Sound and are similar at each venue.
Each audio system can function as stereo, LCR or full 5.1 surround. To achieve this a DME24N manages the system, which comprises two Installation Series IS1215 subs, three IF2112s for the stereo/LCR mid-highs and six IF2108 surround speakers. Amplification is by Yamaha T5Ns for the subs, PC9501Ns for the mid-highs and PC2001Ns powering the surround speakers.
"We had a number of requirements from each system," says McGreal. "First, it had to sound fantastic. But with each campus being both a school and a community centre, there would obviously be a wide range of people potentially controlling the system. So it had to be extremely easy to use."
To achieve this, the DME24N was programmed with various system presets for film showings (via a Yamaha BDS2900BL Blu-Ray player), live music, theatre, presentations and so on, which are controlled by an ICP1 intelligent control panel. This allows a simple button press to select whichever preset is desired, with the added benefit of keeping inexperienced (and possibly enquiring) minds from being able to tamper with the DME's settings.
"Another benefit of the DME was being able to limit volume levels," says McGreal. "The halls will inevitably see their share of 'Disco Daves' running the music at community events. With the DME we've been able to set an absolute volume level that can't be exceeded, so if someone pushes all the levels up on the system, the DME will automatically bring them back down to an acceptable level."
As well as in the halls, Yamaha S112V loudspeakers also feature in seven sports halls across the four campuses, along with HS10W and HS50 monitors in a community recording studio installed at each one.
"The Community Campuses are all projects which the Council has really done properly. All are equipped and built to the highest standards I've ever seen," McGreal continues.
"Everyone is extremely happy with the Yamaha systems, the audio quality is superb. We did extensive demos and the sound is on a par with, if not better than, professional multiplex cinemas. You could see how excited people were when they sat down and listened to the demos.
"On top of that, the DME control is terribly clever, but at the same time it's very safe. All anyone needs to do is to press one button to set the whole system up. With anything like this, you can potentially end up making it very complex to use. It makes me feel really good leaving a system that sounds fabulous and is extremely versatile, but I know won't bamboozle the people who have to use it."
(Jim Evans)
