BoseA® RoomMatchA® loudspeakers are able to work around the venue’s existing acoustical intricacies, turning previously troublesome areas like the balcony into prime listening seats
Framingham, Massachusetts, January 2, 2014 – The Rondileau Campus Center Auditorium at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, has been part of campus life since it was built in 1970. Named for retiring president Adrian Rondileau, the center boasts several ballrooms and conference rooms, a large cafeteria, several common areas, an open access computer lab and a small dining room. It also houses offices for the Center for Multicultural and International Affairs, the Student Government Association and Visitor Information. But the heart of this multi-use building is its 1,300-seat auditorium, which is used for concerts and theatrical presentations. The auditorium’s sound system was in need of an upgrade, and the university put out a request-for-proposal. The system chosen to take the auditorium into the future included RoomMatchA® loudspeakers and PowerMatchA® amplifiers from BoseA® Professional Systems.
Designed and installed by Sudbury, Massachusetts-based Adtech Systems, the system is configured in a single central array consisting of one RM9005 loudspeaker, two RM9010’s, two RM9020’s and one RM12040; a pair of RMS215 subwoofers; and four LT 9403 full-range 3-way loudspeakers used as fills. These are powered by three PM8500N PowerMatchA® amplifiers. The system is controlled by a Bose ControlSpaceA® ESP-88 DSP.
When Adtech Systems was being considered for the project, Charles Crane, Sales Engineer with Adtech, saw that the school had already specified two other brands of loudspeakers. “They weren’t aware of the Bose Professional products,” he realized. As part of his bid process, Crane brought in the Bose ModelerA® sound system software. He used it to draw all the seating areas within the auditorium and predict the sound coverage. This showed the customer that the design would thoroughly cover the floor and balcony seating areas, but it also revealed that the array would have to be hoisted higher than expected to address the existing acoustical clouds in place in the venue – something that could only have been accurately determined by computer modeling, since the clouds were not precisely represented on the auditorium’s blueprints.
“As it turns out, we were the only one of the three vendors who provided the schools with a proposal that was validated by computer modeling,” says Crane. “When they saw how Bose was able to provide a complete package, from modeling and speakers to DSP and amplification, they ‘got it’ – they saw that this was the full-featured solution that they really needed. The room has a lot of reverberation and peculiar reflections, and the Modeler design was able to identify them. Then, the combination of RoomMatch loudspeakers, PowerMatch amplifiers and ControlSpace ESP-88 were able to properly address those issues. And they worked like a charm – the customer told us that the balcony went from being the worst seats in the house to some of the best. Bose really helped turn this venue around.”
