Danbury, CT – January 2015… Opened in September 2014, Western Connecticut State University’s new Visual and Performing Arts Center is a stunning achievement in both architecture and technology. Several years in the making, the 130,000 square foot facility comprises three wings – Theatre Arts, Music, and Visual Arts – and houses a multitude of spaces including a Concert Hall, Studio Theatre, Recording Studio, rehearsal rooms, as well as an Art Gallery, Painting and Sculpture Studios, and numerous other creative spaces.
“It’s definitely an adventurous architectural space,” observes Ben Bausher, Senior Consultant at Norwalk, CT-based Jaffe Holden, and designer of the Center’s state-of-the-art audio and video systems. As Bausher explains, the project presented a number of challenges, not the least of which was the unconventional architectural design of the venues themselves.
The 350-seat Veronica Hagman Concert Hall is a case in point. One of the Center’s more interesting spaces, the hall features stunning, unconventional architecture with tri-level, in-the-round seating, variable acoustics, and an audio system featuring Fulcrum Acoustic TQ Series loudspeakers. “It’s a fairly well-behaved space, acoustically speaking,” says Bausher. “But the unique seating pattern called for a considerable number of distributed fill speakers to provide uniform coverage across the entire space.”
Six Fulcrum CX1565 12-inch coaxial systems comprise the main arrays, with ten RX599 compact 5.25–inch cabinets providing front fill. A second fill ring of 14 RX599 boxes and a third fill ring of eight more RX599s completes coverage, with four SUB215 subwoofers stacked onstage in cardioid pattern to reduce low frequency buildup. A DiGiCo SD9 console handles FOH duties.
The 350-seat MainStage Theatre, a somewhat more conventional proscenium-style venue, is outfitted with left and right arrays, each with two Fulcrum GX1295 and two GX1265 12-inch coaxial systems, along with a center array of two CX1265 cabinets. A pair of SUB215 subs covers low end punch. Front fill and under balcony fill are both handled by RX599 boxes A DiGiCo SD10-24 covers the live mix.
The installation was performed by New Jersey-based Masque Sound. All rooms are connected via MADI over Opticore to the recording studio, which is outfitted with an SSL Duality console. A pair of portable recording racks with remote-control microphone preamps can be positioned in any of the halls or rehearsal rooms as needed, connecting directly with the studio’s Pro Tools system to capture performances in any room in the house.
Bausher points to Fulcrum’s unique coaxial design as a critical factor in the systems’ design. “To achieve the performance of Fulcrum’s 12-inch, two-way cabinets in a non-coaxial design would require a box around 30 inches tall,” he observes. “Plus, it runs on a single amplifier channel and only needs a single processing output. It’s smaller, needs less power and processing, and that ultimately means a lower budget. It was the perfect fit.”
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About Fulcrum Acoustic – Founded in 2008, Fulcrum Acoustic is a professional loudspeaker manufacturer known for its unique approach to loudspeaker design. Employing the research of company co-founder David Gunness, Fulcrum Acoustic combines proprietary coaxial design and Temporal EqualizationTM processing power to create the most powerful and versatile line of loudspeakers available.
