AUTOGRAPH iDR INSTALLATION FOR LATYMER UPPER SCHOOL

Autograph was approached in early May 2005 by Latymer Upper School to re-furnish their existing audio system in the listed Assembly hall and to supply a brand new system in the multipurpose sports hall. After several site visits and demonstrations with the schools facilities manager and their technical manager, an Allen & Heath iDR-8 system was specified with MC² amplifiers and EM Acoustic loudspeakers. The Assembly hall brief was for vocal reinforcement with low profile loudspeakers and the ability to reconfigure the room EQ and delay for different speaking positions. This ruled out an all analogue system with operation being conducted by the school’s facilities staff, this required a unit with instant recall operation at the touch of a button. Lee Dennison, Autograph's Project Manager, chose to install the Allen & Heath iDR-8 installation mixer. “The advantage this system has over other leading installation mixers is that the software interface is immediately recognisable as a mixer, and setup and programming times are greatly reduced. The iDR-8 itself sounds great with enough inputs and outputs for most standard installations, and additional expansion and networking if required. The inclusion of two PL4’s comprising of infra-red interfaces and a PL5 infra-red remote gave the system exceptional control and recall without ever having to go to the main unit itself. The main speaker system for the assembly hall was EM Acoustics brand new EM I2s with the first production line boxes going straight to site from the manufacture. Dennison had demoed these boxes a few months earlier and was sold on their throw and coverage. Says Dennison, “These are a 90 x 15 box which can be rigged horizontally or vertically and have a rotatable horn couple with 2 x 5” drivers, the box is passive and it just keeps going!! Why wouldn't you use them?”. The system is driven by 2 MC² T 4-250 series amplifiers with two spare channels for an upgrade next year with the removal of the schools organ due to take place in the spring 2006. These two channels will be driving a further two EM I2s controlled from the iDR-8.

The Sports hall was a rather different installation. With a naturally reverberant and reflective space (approximately four seconds RT60). The equipment design took longer to fulfill. This is a multi-purpose venue with different assemblies and parents evenings delivered from various areas of the room, as well as sports class's being taught from all around the room. Again, an Allen & Heath iDR-8 was deployed to keep familiarity of operation between the rooms due to the multiple operators using the system, a pre-requisite specification for the design. The PL4’s and PL5 were again specified and the PL4’s placed around the room to offer maximum infra-red coverage, as well as manual operation. The speaker system this time had to provide increased level due to the distance from the listener and Dennison specified eight EM acoustics EM121 boxes. Four boxes were rigged as a central cluster and the other four as mono pairs on two sides of the sports hall. The boxes were delayed and equalized to work with the environment and create a natural sounding vocal quality. Custom metal work was required for the boxes in order for protection from stray cricket and basketball's and the “riot shields” blended into the structure very effectively. The system was driven by MC² T series T2000 amplifiers.