Yamaha Commercial Audio Donates Live System to Nashville High School

	Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School's auditorium.

Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School in Nashville, Tennessee offers students the opportunity to learn through the lens of the entertainment industry with pathways in audio engineering, broadcasting, record industry, marketing, and image consulting. It is the only entertainment magnet high school in the country. The vision of Pearl-Cohn is to equip its students to realize and achieve their potential while committed to educate the whole person.

Bryan Lenox of Lenox Productions facilitated the arrangement with Yamaha, who in turn, enlisted the services of J Sound Services of Nashville to add a new Yamaha CL1 digital audio console and Rio 3208-D input/out box to its 413-seat auditorium. Yamaha IS and DXR speakers and TXn amplifiers were also installed. J Sound Services specified the system for its easy operation by student volunteers. Auditorium productions at Pearl-Cohn can be anything from assemblies with announcements and presentations that include video to full-on theatrical events.

J Sound Services has had a lot of experience installing Yamaha Installation Series speakers, so they were the obvious choice for the installation. "Once we understood the scope of the project, we determined a Yamaha MTX5D processor and DCPS wall-mount controller would also be required," states Jason Spence, owner, J Sound Services. The design approach was based on the fact that there is limited acoustic treatment in the school auditorium. "It was important to minimize the amount of energy on the walls," says Spence.

Time was spent using Yamaha's YS3 Sound System Simulator and EASE acoustic modeling software to focus the mid-high and subwoofer-arrays. Deployed end-fire arrays both in L-R and center allow pattern control on how wide the throw would be in the room and also provides a cardiod pattern measuring 12db down on stage behind the arrays. "By deploying the subs this way we have significantly reduced the low-end energy on the stage and what would have reflected off the walls in a typical omni pattern," Spence adds. "The room can easily handle and extends below 40Hz without the low-end building up, leaving the room also very articulate and musical. The house is nice and big with lots of sub. The design is very unique and it clearly looks different. The staff and Bryan Lenox were quite impressed with the results of the end-firing arrays."

Lenox assisted in the set up and adjustments of the CL1. "The system sounds really good. The school had a unique need for a system that can handle intimate speaking all the way to low-end thumping Hip Hop music. And, this system definitely delivers. The CL1 is a great sounding console and one that the students can learn on in order to prepare for the real world so they can jump into any situation with confidence."

The new auditorium's multi-purpose system is all Dante connected with the Yamaha CL1 taking control of presets for theatrical productions using the consoles Nuendo Live software. Pearl-Cohn ran Cat5 cable to their multi-track room to record the events taking place in auditorium. A Cisco switch is used to network and import multi-tracking in studio. An old projection booth above the auditorium now has the capability of adding a Nuendo recording suite with infrastructure and cables already in place.

"Our students needed professional-class live production facilities in order to complete our vision to equip our students with real-world skills that will transfer to the marketplace or college when they graduate," states Sam Lorber, instructional designer at Pearl-Cohn. "Thanks to Yamaha's generous donation, these students will now be able to walk into any venue: club, church, college auditorium, or arena with a skill set advantage no other school can provide." The principal commented on how she loves that she can touch one button and it just works.

J Sound Services also installed a Vivitek High-Definition 6K lumen projector with remote HDMI interface. To update the theatrical lighting system, J Sound Services enlisted the consulting services of Chris Lisle Lighting Design and installed Elektralite LED PAR fixtures, Watson raceway and ElektraHazer, an Altman spotlight, and Chauvet Datastream; all of which integrated with the existing ETC dimmers. As part of the lighting system update the existing Fresnels and Lekos were reconditioned and focused.

J Sound Services also installed four Yamaha C115VA and two C112VA Club Series Speakers using a MTX3 processor and the same DCPS wall-mounted controller as in the auditorium. Spence said the system installed could be operated in the same manner, with a touch of a button, making it extremely simple and consistent for staff and students to operate the systems in either location.

For more information on Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School, visit www.pearlcohnhs.mnps.org/.

For more information on J Sound Services, visit www http://www.jss.net.