Gwynedd-Mercy Academy, a Roman Catholic elementary (K-8) school located in Springhouse, PA, has a large, well-designed gymnasium to support its physical education classes and sports events, drama and musical performances, worship services and other school activities.
The gymnasium has a theatrical stage and versatile activity and seating space. However, the gym’s sound system was always a challenge. The school’s activities had outgrown the capabilities of the system and its coverage and sound quality were poor.
To compensate, users would turn up the volume causing feedback and intensifying reverberation. Because of these issues, the school often rented a sound system. The scheduling and cost of these rentals complicated event planning.
Last year school principal Sister Anne Crampsie asked music teacher Sal Scinto to research and propose a new sound system. Through a referral from another school, Scinto contacted Tony Albano of Naaman’s AV in Avondale, PA, and the two designed a versatile new sound system for the gym using Community Professional VERIS2 and R-Series loudspeakers.
The system uses two rows of R.5 loudspeakers distributed over the bleachers and the gym floor and a pair of V2-35 three-way loudspeakers above the stage opening for front fill. A V2-215S subwoofer can be quickly connected to the system for musical events.
For theatrical and musical performances, Albano provided a Soundcraft digital mixer and Shure wireless microphones, and added a Community dSPEC processor for system equalization and configuration. For less complex events, users can bypass the digital mixer and operate the system from simple controls in the equipment rack.
In addition, the system can be subdivided. For sports and other events that do not utilize the stage, the front loudspeakers and subwoofer are turned off. For on-screen presentations and similar events, the distributed loudspeakers are turned off and the system uses only the front loudspeakers annd sub.
Because of this versatility, Scinto says Gwynedd-Mercy Academy no longer needs to rent a system for theatrical or musical performances and everyone’s expectations were satisfied, adding, “the sound quality is excellent, and the response from the speakers is very full and clear.”
Gwynedd-Mercy Academy was designated as a 2007 Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, and named as one of Pennsylvania’s top 10 schools by the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University.