Martin Audio and Balanced Input Overcomes Arches at Phillips Academy Andover Cochran Chapel

Integration firm Balanced Input recently overcame an array of audio challenges with a Martin Audio system in the historic Phillips Academy Cochran Chapel.

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Martin Audio and Balanced Input Overcomes Arches at Phillips Academy Andover Cochran Chapel

Mark Walker and the Balanced Input integration team met the challenges that often come with working in historic buildings — and navigated the pressures of perfecting a house of worship — all in one go at Phillips Academy Cochran Chapel.

Phillips Academy Andover is a private boarding school founded in — not 1978, not 1878, but — 1778, and its alumni include George H Bush, George W Bush and Bill Belichick.

The school’s last renovation of the historic Cochran Chapel dates back to 1998. To update the space, the school wanted a versatile, high-performing system that could be used for a range of functions.

“The system had to provide superior audio for the wide variety of events held in the chapel, including school functions, weekly worship services for different faiths, weddings, concerts and recitals by high-profile artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin, along with guest speakers like Spike Lee and Jane Goodall,” notes Walker.

“Of course, the biggest challenge was overcoming the problems posed by the two lines of pillars, which are such a huge obstruction the school had to install the large projection screens to the left and right of the alter so people in the side aisles can see what’s going on in the center.”

Other obstacles Balanced Input had to overcome included the reflectivity of the acoustical space, and the location of the building’s pillars that caused the chapel’s old system to develop dead spots behind each pillar.

Martin Audio Rescues Phillips Academy Cochran Chapel

Designing a system that would expand the coverage to allow everyone in the chapel to hear, while maintaining the appearance of the historic, as well as complementing the chapel’s projection system, Walker utilized Martin Audio products.

“If you can’t see a speaker, you probably won’t be able to hear it, either. It should line up with the listener at some point. After trying several different approaches, I realized the best way to go was something that had been tried before—installing the speakers high above the seating area inside the wooden archways at the top of the pillars.

“But that approach hadn’t worked ultimately because the speakers weren’t up to the task,” explains Walker.

“Fortunately, Martin Audio had come out with the CDD12, the only speaker that could succeed in that particular application because the horizontal dispersion is wider close in the nearfield and gets narrower as you move away from it.

Use of Zoning Maximizes Martin Audio Technology

To fulfill the aesthetic and acoustical requirements the school wanted, Balanced Input divided the chapel into 12 zones with six zones on the left side and six zones on the right side.

Dedicating a speaker per zone, Balanced Input mated a total of 12 CDD12 speakers to a Martin Audio MA2.Q8 amplifier, along with dedicated processing via a Martin Audio DXO.5 Loudspeaker Management System.

Three MA2.Q8 amplifiers drive all 12 zones, and each speaker is flown about 32-degrees from horizontal via custom mounting brackets.

Augmenting the CDD12 loudspeakers, Balanced Input also employed two CDD8s as outfills for faculty seating to the left and right of the stage, and two other CDD8s angled towards the stage to serve as monitors.

Covering the seating below the chapel’s balcony, Balanced Input installed Martin Audio C4.8T ceiling speakers, and the New England-based integration and consulting company finished the system by repurposing existing equipment such as Yamaha 01V digital mixers and mics.

“The Faculty and AV staff at Phillips Academy Cochran Chapel is really pleased with the upgrade,” adds Walker.

“They put the system to an initial test at an all-school meeting. Their staff felt the system sounded spectacular with exceptional clarity throughout the space and smooth, even coverage in what was a packed house.”

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