St Catherine’s school in the picturesque village of Bramley near Guildford, Surrey, has been an independent school for girls since 1885. In celebration of its 125^th anniversary, the school has recently inaugurated the most ambitious building project in the history of St Catherine’s. The Anniversary Halls, now in full daily use, is a spectacular modern building housing a major new set of facilities for sport and the arts including a 320-seat auditorium for drama, music and dance productions. Consultancy firm Theatre Projects were called in to design the theatre systems for the main auditorium, for which TPC consultant John Riddell specified an EM Acoustics PA system.

The brief was to create a versatile space that can serve multiple uses efficiently, while being simple enough to be transformed and operated by just a couple of key staff members at the school. The auditorium is lit by natural daylight and can seat at least 320 students and staff for traditional school assemblies which happen daily as well as all sorts of performance types from ensemble concerts, chamber music, drama productions and weekly assemblies, to meetings, film screenings and lectures.

TPC’s John Riddell pointed out that the installed sound system needed to cope with all these scenarios, allowing untrained staff to provide sound for presentation and assembly, while giving the experienced technical staff full flexibility for drama and music events. A warm, natural sound was sought from the loudspeakers, in keeping with the ambience of the room and its wood panelling and natural light.

“We opted for EM Acoustics for a number of reasons,” explained John, “not least of which is that the company is British, designing and assembling in the UK. They also have a commitment to and understanding of speakers for theatre, drama use in particular, supported by an extensive collection of full range boxes that you can specify with just about any range of power amps and still guarantee performance. Furthermore, they are a delight to deal with, and I know that I can rely on personal support from Ed [Kinsella] and Mike [Wheeler] to help tailor a system appropriately. Finally, I would cite the flat frequency response across the range of EM Acoustics products as another major factor in our decision-making.”

“The core of the installed speaker system is the Left and Right pairs of EMS-152s giving a rich, opulent sound firmly supported by the 15” driver. These would be enough on their own to comfortably fill the space,” John continued. “The Centre pair of EMS-122s add focus, with long and short throw versions used to provide appropriate coverage. EMS-81s mounted beneath an auditorium lighting bridge, add gentle fill to the seats at the back. The system can be expanded by patching in additional 81s and i-2s as fill, foldback or onstage effects and a pair of i-12s underpin the whole lot with solid bass when needed.”

“The performance of the installation is almost completely flat, requiring very little equalisation. There is plenty of headroom between the QSC amplifiers and the loudspeakers, ensuring the sound quality is maintained across the dynamic range, from the quietest to the loudest use.”

According to St Catherine’s Headmistress, Alice Phillips, the installation is an enormous success at every level and the school is delighted with the results. “The sound system in the new auditorium makes it possible to play music of all kinds, from rock to baroque, with a quality of sound reproduction that makes the students feel as if they are attending a live performance. Watching them listening to the power of the speakers is a joy.  They are overwhelmed by the power of the music. As for its ability to provide sound effects of all kinds for drama productions… Overall, a superb system.”