Hastings High School in Hastings, Mich., upgraded its performing arts facility utilizing Innovox’s large venue toolbox of speakers. The project was a consultant-driven project designed by Ben Strange, Associate at Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, and installed by Tim Heneveld and his crew at AVI-SPL.
“Aesthetically, the speakers were beautiful,” explained Heneveld. “They matched the space and the auditorium, blending easily into the gorgeously architected facility. It was important the technology keep up with the space visually, but it also had to perform its duties technically. And acoustically from the performance, I was not prepared for the quality of sound that came out of the Innovox boxes. The fullness, the clarity and the smoothness of coverage. I’ve been in the industry over 25 years and it’s hard to innovate with speakers – we can go louder, but this is the first time, in a long time, I’ve been taken aback and surprised by the experience of the sound coming out of these boxes. It’s full, it’s clear – it’s just so impressive.”
Strange specified Innovox’s HLA-Series of line arrays and subwoofers with internal amplification and processing for the Hastings project. “We rely on Innovox to manage the tuning of the elements within the hybrid array so the contractor can focus on aligning the sound system devices to each other, as well as to the parameters of the room.”
The project consists of three HLA-1650P line arrays as left-center-right mains and three HLA-950P as a left-center-right articulation extension delay system for the balcony. A custom-enclosed cardioid subwoofer sits adjacent to the main center array as a visual match to the main HLA array. Five HLA-Stage Lip speakers line the edge of the stage to provide front-fill for seating in the nearfield. A Symetrix Radius DSP system and Yamaha QL5 digital audio console control the speaker package. While the Stage Lip front-fill speakers are powered by an Ashly NE amplifier, the processing is provided by the central Symetrix DSP, keeping system management simple and more accessible to the client. Dante networked audio was used throughout the system, including the wireless microphone system from Shure’s ULXD line.
“Innovox has consistently provided well-tuned active devices – on the Hastings project as well as other projects where we’ve used their products,” says Strange. “We’ve designed many systems with Innovox’s passive, non-powered, arrays, in the past. The Innovox HLA performance remains consistent, regardless of the processing that we use. That says a lot about Innovox and the products that they provide.”