Ben Davis High School, Indianapolis, Indiana
Ben Davis High School, the largest three-grade high school in Indiana, is currently undergoing a major addition/renovation that is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2002. Almost every area of the existing 490,000-square-foot school will be renovated, with academic areas consolidated and classrooms updated for new technology. There also will be new and renovated auditoriums, science facilities, a modernized kitchen, cafeteria, and media center, and renovated locker, physical education, and pool facilities. The expansion will provide 180,000 additional square feet in program space, ease circulation throughout the 32-year-old building, and improve or replace mechanical, electrical, fire protection, security, and life-safety systems. The Ben Davis complex, which serves approximately 2,700 students in grades ten through twelve, is one of the most widely used schools in Indianapolis. In addition to traditional high school instruction, the building is used for night school, as well as community events, such as athletic competitions and artistic performances. Administrators estimate that approximately 5,000 people pass through the doors for after-school programs during a typical week. The expansion of the high school is the largest portion of a township-wide project that will also include modernizing four elementary schools.
Comments from SCHENKELSCHULTZ
Architecture, Indianapolis, Indiana
"The existing 850-seat, 7,031 square-foot auditorium at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis was updated and enhanced by the addition of RPG Glass Reinforced Gypsum OptiCurve™ acoustical panels on the side walls, a new fabric finish treatment on the back wall, and a pit filler in front of the stage area. Designed by SCHENKELSHULTZ Architecture, the enhancement of the existing auditorium was designed in addition to a new 460-seat community theater. The result is a cost-effective solution that offers the high school the flexibility to hold simultaneous performances and lectures.
Comments from acoustician Tom Lorenzen,
President of dB Acoustics, Fort Wayne, Indiana
"Auditorium renovations can be difficult, as the basic shape and volume is predetermined. Although this facility is a typical long fan shape dating from the late 60's, flutter echoes and lack of correlated early and late reflections impede the proper usage of this facility for the "Fine Arts". As the architect rejected our first recommendation (the amount of debris would be too high), we sought out the only source for this type of remedy. Dr. Peter D'Antonio of RPG was contacted concerning an optimized, diffusive wall treatment, which could be employed on the sidewalls in their entirety. We utilized RPG's custom designed OptiCurve™ panels in a homogenous installation on both the lower and upper side wall areas. Overall RT60 footprint changed minimally, while the specular reflections & lack of clarity were negated. The OptiCurve™ allowed this project to exceed all expectations."
Telarc and RPG Revisit Digital Cannons "Blast from the Past" with New DSD Technology
RPG is proud to have played a small part in this historic recording. RPG QRD Diffusors and BAD Panels were used as the acoustical treatment in the control room and on stage to enhance the acoustics. We hope you enjoy this recording and encourage you to listen to it. Visit website
The Legendary First Recording
In 1978, Bob Woods and Jack Renner took the first of many risks that are characteristic of Telarc's history. On the cutting edge of recorded sound technology, they made the first commercial classical recordings in the U.S. in the digital format. One of those recordings was the now legendary Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, performed by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The recording featured the first-ever digitally recorded live sound effects-digital cannons.
When the 1812 was released, the cover read "Caution! Digital Cannons," and the interior of the booklet warned the listener that "the cannons of the Telarc 1812 Overture are recorded at a very high level. Lower levels are recommended for initial playback until a safe level can be determined for your equipment." Reviewers also issued cautions: "Just be sure the volume isn't so loud that one of the shots spreads pieces of speaker cone all over your floor," (Digital Audio); and "Its peaks would crack your window panes and maybe your speaker cones, too." (Knight-Ridder Newspapers). The disc became Telarc's best-selling recording of all time, with over 800,000 copies sold, and for well over a decade has been the audio demo disc of choice.
Enter the Next Generation of Sound Recording Technology
Now Telarc is making history again. Recorded with DSD (Direct Stream Digital) encoding, the "new" recording of the 1812 Overture, along with six other popular works by Tchaikovsky, will delight a whole new generation of listeners. "The sound quality of the DSD recording technology is a staggering improvement over what we've had until now," said Telarc president Robert Woods. Telarc began making its first recordings in DSD in May, 1998, with the expectation of offering multi-channel surround formats.
With simultaneous releases in 2-channel stereo CD as well as a 6-channel discrete surround sound and 2-channel stereo SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc), listeners can choose whichever format works best for their own playback components. Details on the DVD-A release will be available in the near future.
Telarc Engineer and surround guru Michael Bishop took on the awesome challenge of creating the final two-channel and multi-channel surround mixes for the new recording. "Little did Jack Renner and Bob Woods know," he comments in the booklet notes, "what a challenging task they had laid out in 1978 for the team and me to accomplish twenty-two years later."
SIAP Electronic Architecture System Installed at the Ahmanson Theatre
Since its inception in 1967, the Ahmanson Theatre has presented a wide variety of dramas, musicals, comedies and classic revivals. Since 1989, Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County has been under the guidance of Artistic Director/Producer Gordon Davidson, who has also served as the Artistic Director for the CTG/Mark Taper Forum for the past 34 years. The Music Center includes the Ahmanson Theater, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Mark Taper Forum. The Ahmanson Theater stages classical dramas, comedies and international performances while the Mark Taper Forum specializes in novelties and avant-guard productions. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is the largest and the most imposing building of the three and was designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry.
The new Ahmanson re-opened in January 1995. Acoustician Robert Mahoney, president of Robert F. Mahoney & Associates, Bolder, Colorado, was enlisted to improve the intelligibility of this classic theater. Bob Mahoney specified the SIAP® to improve the intelligibility in the Ahmanson Theater, following the success of the SIAP® system at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, in New York City.
RPG technology used in new Widescreen Review Laboratory
In July Dr. Peter D'Antonio delivered a two hour presentation on the acoustical design of the new Widescreen listening laboratory. Prior to the seminar Dr. D'Antonio made final adjustments, carried out proof-of-performance measurements and commissioned the new room. Chris Pelonis, of Pelonis Sound, was on hand during the measurements and assisted in the final commissioning. The new room currently has excellent fidelity, imaging and a very tight bass response to deal with intense low frequency content in soundtracks like the Haunting, Matrix, etc. Everyone should experience a widescreen movie in this listening environment. Look for Dr. D'Antonio's article on Minimizing Acoustic Distortion in Volume 10, Number 6, Issue 50 (July 2001) utilizing RPG's Room Sizer, Room Optimizer, Variscreen and Skyline diffusor.
For more details visit WIDESCREEN REVIEW® CREATING STATE-OF-THE-ART REFERENCE THEATRE AT NEW FACILITY.
Stay tuned to the Widescreen web page for photos and new information on the listening laboratory and visit them at CEDIA.
"AES information document for room acoustics and sound reinforcement systems- Characterization and measurement of surface scattering uniformity ", J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 49, No. 3 (March 2001)
As Chair of SC-04-02 I wanted to thank the working group and especially my Vice Chair Dr. Trevor Cox for such an outstanding job in helping to develop the information document. After 16 years of sometimes-solitary pursuit of a uniform diffusion coefficient, it is personally extremely satisfying and rewarding to have this important document published. We began this journey in 1983 when Lambert's law was the prevailing model of uniform diffusion. A boundary-plane goniometer was developed to measure and evaluate diffusor performance. These measurements, supported by boundary element method calculations, proved that we could improve on Lambert's law, without violating the second law of thermodynamics. Lambert's law deals with point scattering of incoherent high frequency sounds and is not applicable to diffusors [J. Konnert and P. D'Antonio, "Comments on Diffusing Surfaces in Concert Halls", J. Audio Eng. Soc., Vol. 37, No. 10, 839-844 (October 1989)]. The QRD, for example, explicitly uses wave interference (i.e. coherence) to produce its even diffraction lobes. For single plane (1D) diffusors we were able to show that an optimum diffuser scatters sound in the same way that a cylindrical source radiates sound. Autocorrelation metrics based on this have been highly successful in developing optimized quality diffusors that improve on earlier number theory designs initially introduced over 20 years ago . It then appeared sensible to describe an optimum (2D) hemispherical diffuser as one that mimics a spherical source. This indicates that a uniform intensity model better matches the philosophy of diffusor design practice. Based on this body of work, we now have the ability to design, predict, optimize, measure, evaluate, and move forward in standardizing the performance of sound diffusing surfaces. We encourage the acoustical consulting community to begin requesting diffusion coefficient data from manufacturers along with absorption coefficient data. In this way we can all begin incorporating diffusion coefficients into project specifications. For information on standards activities visit the web site at www.aes.org/standards. Further inquiries may be sent to standards@aes.org. If you are unable to obtain any of the draft documents from the website, please contact the Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee Draft Comments Dept. at 212-242-5589 or email: standards@aes.org.
Diffuse Seminars
