S.N. Shure Theater Opens for Business
Shure recently opened the new S.N. Shure Theater at the company’s corporate headquarters in Niles, Ill. Shure Chairman Rose L. Shure, and President and CEO Sandy LaMantia participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony before welcoming Shure Associates and special guests into the venue.
Shure recently opened the new S.N. Shure Theater at the company’s corporate headquarters in Niles, Ill. Shure Chairman Rose L. Shure, and President and CEO Sandy LaMantia participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony before welcoming Shure Associates and special guests into the venue.
“We’ve wanted to build out this space ever since we moved into our new headquarters five years ago,” said LaMantia. “Following the completion of the Shure Technology Annex in 2004 and the Performance and Listening Center (PLC) in 2005, we were finally able to turn our attention to this project, which turned out even better than we imagine. It’s a beautiful venue that will serve as a lasting tribute to our founder, S.N. Shure, for many years to come.”
The lobby outside the theater features an interactive exhibit designed to teach visitors and new associates about the values, beliefs, and life of S.N. Shure. It also provides audio, so that Mr. Shure’s voice can be heard.
Designed by Krueck + Sexton Architects, construction began in March 2008 on the 4,000-square-foot, 143-seat theater, which was designed as a state-of-the-art venue for audio and video presentations, product demonstrations, and live music performances.
The theater’s AV system includes Meyer loudspeakers and subwoofer, a Dolby Lake loudspeaker processor, a custom 200-inch Stewart projection screen, a 20,000 lumen Digital Projection 1080p projector, a dual-input windowing processor for multiple images on the screen, a custom demonstration cart and lectern with Shure microphones and a Crestron control system, Shure UHF-R wireless systems, and a Yamaha LS9 digital mixing console.
“More than 700 feet of fiber-optic cable was run from the theater to the PLC for the future implementation of multichannel audio recording,” said Dean Giavaras, senior audio technician, who will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the theater and PLC. “This will enable us to record performances from the theater in the PLC, which we’re really looking forward to.”
“The vision for the interior design of the S.N. Shure Theater was to use wood as a contrast to the concrete and glass in the rest of the building,” said LaMantia. “However, wood finishes are typically incompatible with a room that needs to support amplified events. This presented multiple challenges to the design team because traditionally available acoustic wood products don’t provide the look and feel of refinement and quality that was desired.”
The solution was to create a fin shape and spacing scheme on the left and right walls, which was developed by assembling a rough mock-up where fin placement could be altered based on acoustical test results. This dictated the profile of the fin, the progressive spacing, and the rotation toward the stage.
“The kinetic look of these walls is a fine example of fully integrated architectural solutions to acoustical design,” added LaMantia. “The end result is an amazingly quiet room with extraordinary acoustics.”
