|AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY ORATORY, AVE MARIA, FLORIDA Ire Maria University i a fenpus located neat Naples and Immokalee, Florida. Phe 100-seat Oratory serves asthe center of sprtualife for andthe university. The Or ding generous reverberation times on the order Acentralloudsp tesign process but was quickl The architecture has a comp! structural thancel. A central cluster would have lo en unoccupied, tem was considered early in the ork and an of fe the main but of place Within the area and would have conflicted with im feligious iconography. There was a strong desire nding a rate the loudspeak tural elements. This al, narrow c lesvisvally with Was realized by u sets of UNIVERSITY ORATORY, AVE MARIA, FLORIDA I 197 loudspeakers integrated between vertical the e ructural beams. Th de: alistic sound source localization and excellent speec ker arrangement. Two tal columnar-ar‘ay loudspeakers are ction » maintains beam steering 3d for the main loudspeaker designs. Th largest standard f completed, The taller nid fr time the design wa: control within important uencies. The loud- arrays consist of 32 four-inch: ane individual DSP and power a rithm p with the loudspeaker was custom the loudspeaker manufacturer b model sent to the manufacturer. T area of the loudspeaker, ané all digital signal p smplitude shading within t 1m. A very tightly focused even coverage fr Figure 5.18 shows the npleted, The vided jon the lumnar array wer mized for the r ertical beam front to the| after the instalg § af 3 = & = é ; g 5 = 2 2 z 198 SOUND SYSTEMS the front columnar-array loudspeakers extends from 130 Hz to 10,000 Hz, which limits the lower end of the loudspeaker to speech only. Fill loudspeakers are used in a delayed fash- jon for small areas not covered by the main columner-array loudspeakers. These include portable front-fll loudspeakers, under-balconyy delay loudspeakers, and balcony loudspeakers for the very back of the room, The balcony is used for choir loft seating and will eventually contain a large pipe organ system, The Ave Maria Oratory also contains another system, which faces the exact opposite of the main system and 's optimized for music originating from the choir loft. Ar- ranged in @ left-right split loudspeaker mode, these main music loudspeaker systems are also digitally controlled beam steering columnar arrays, but from a different manufacturer These music loudspeaker arrays consist of several four-inch loudspeakers and vertically stacked one-inch dome tweeter loudspeakers in a shallow multicell hom. A supplemental array of four-inch loudspeakers is attached to the main mu: sic array loudspeakers. Because of the loudspeaker spacing within the array, the total opening angle of the vertical | beam is limited to approximately 20 to 40 degrees. This vas ao tad doom pie et ome Packet be aires Te esrbeam ange a Cate berate ase rept pad st Se cma oipech tiny fon ob 9 Soe aac ease een uel a Meer! enforcement fo» sat or neo oh sd restorer | cou ee specraty tena oye Sl nec nat fn yen The an ee inva doigh en spetouspete’ Ti slows te utsesy To ope te stem wie Toned wer or dly Mas on wend wasp ees Tisopte bart tthe begmnrget be seni on Me betaed mansty ee isaeoamancly cn min stchadnaephec rsagancscrmaceti crocs fed sapien mods ht ene el sealersUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STUDENT UNION, STORRS, CONNECTICUT H 199 ESis renovations to existing portions ofthe student union, Meet= UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STUDENT ingsrooms and the dining area were outfitted with new sound UNION, STORRS, CONNECTICUT systems. The main sound system in the building and primary The Swlent Union at the Unvesy of Consciut fect of he rot was threw ratios utr [Coon os a nad of panded prog sce Theater asim be ror en [=200 I sounp systems including comedy, lectures, small music performances, tal- ent shows, and other speech events. However, the main use of the space is as a movie theater. Movies are shown with a 4igital projection system and a multichannel surround-sound system ‘The theater shape includes a relatively straight-forward audience seating area in front of a modest stage and a rear audience balcony. Room finish treatments included uphol- stered seats throughout and a stretched-fabric system with fiberglass insulation on all of the side and rear walls. The ceiling was left treated with sound-diffusive materials. The main loudspeaker system covering multipurpose uses is a Cental loudspecker cluster for the balcony and front main seating, The under-balcony seating areas are served by a de- layed loudspeaker mounted to the ceiling under the balcony. The primary sound system is the movie sound system with a fully integrated multichannel system. Figure 5.19 shows the locations of loudspeakers through- ‘out the theater, The theater includes a complete 5:1 multi- channel system. For the left, center, and right loudspeakers, three-way loudspeakers were used, each covering the low- frequency, mid-frequency, and high-frequency range. These arelocatedina cavity in the wall behind an acoustically trans: parent perforated projection screen. Several surround-sound loudspeakers are located throughout the audience area and hidden from view behind acoustically transparent stretched fabric. The surround loudspeakers are wired to power ampli- fiers so that eventual expansion to a 7:1 system is possible with discrete rear surround loudspeakers available. Currently, the digital signal processing is wired in a 5:1 configuration with side surround-sound channels shared with the separate | rear channels The electronics for movie sound are often separated | into an A-chain and B-chain. The A-chain, which is typically connected right after the source equipment, decodes the surround material and provides discrete outputs for each ‘channel. in this case study, the A-chain is a surround-sound decoder, connected to the media player with a digital coaxial line, The B-chain connects to the A-chain equipment and processes the signals so that loudspeaker response is ‘optimized for the room. In this case the digital signal is preserved throughout the signal chain until connection to the power amplifiers. There was no room for a subwoofer fon the stage or behind the screen, so the B-channel DSP was configured to matrix the subwoofer channel to the low-frequency loudspeaker portions of the main left, center, and right loudspeakers.RHODE ISLAND SENATE CHAMBER, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND Xa s RHODE ISLAND SENATE CHAMBER, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND ‘An aging sound system for the Rhode Island Senate Cham: ber required replacement. Several components of the system ‘were in disrepair, but the primary reason criving the replace- ment was a lack of audibility, intelligibility, and persistent feedback. Along with the design of the loudspeaker system, it was important to maintain the voting functionality con- nected to the sound system, The system is set up with a typical delegate system, where a state senator pushes a but- ‘ton requesting to be recognized by the chairman. This button push activates alight and an icon on the chairperson’s screen and clerk's screen. Once recognized by the chair, the senator's ‘microphone is activated by the clerk The loudspeaker system is a distributed system of loud: speakers mounted on the top surface of the senate desk furniture, Each senator's dest has a loudspeaker integrated with voting controls, shown in Figure 5.20. Locating the loud= speakers at each desk allows the system to be run at a low volume level, The lower operating volume level reduces the amount of excess reverberant energy and reduces feed- back. This provides a more audible and intelligible signal to 201 listeners. The Senate requested that the existing use of hand- held microphones continue, so this project replaced and up ‘graded the system microphones tohand-held condenser type ‘microphones. When recognized for the floor, a senatorstands Up, holding his or her microphone, and talks. The wiring for the systems is configured so that each loudspeaker is served by its own power amplifier and dis- crete digital signal-processing channel. A technique called “mix-minus" was used so that each senator/loudspeaker receives a complete audio mix of all of the microphones “minus” his or her own microphone. This wes very helpful for reducing feedback. In addition, that microphone signal in loudspeakers adjacent to an active microphone was tured down a few decibels. This helps compensate for the fact that speakers hold their microphones at different heights ‘and talk at volume levels that vary from speaker to speaker and time to time. Careful attention was paid to the dyramics controls (compressorimiter) during tuning and adjusting so that output levels were consistent no matter who wasspeak- ing The compressors were used extensively with this tun- ing process, with most voices engaging the compressor and ‘makeup gain used to raise the sound|evel of each microphone independently. Figure 5.20 Close-up view of desk-mounted loudspeaker. (Photo by Author. urtesyof Cavanaugh Tocc Assocites, Inc} RHODE ISLAND SENATE CHAMBER, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND