QM350i at McClelland College Brings New Purpose to "Multi-Purpose"
McClelland College is a large secondary college situated in the beach side Melbourne outer suburb of Frankston. Being an amalgamation of two colleges, the school must provide a wide and varied education to a broad spectrum of students in this growing area. The school has a well developed performing arts faculty that covers music and drama and as a consequence, a suitable performance capability is essential to reach the areas full potential.
A large multi-purpose space was available for this purpose but like all large spaces intended to be multi functional, it was an acoustic challenge that would require much expense to rectify.
Since there were budgetary limitations, it was better value to design a sound system that could deal with the reflective space than to renovate the space. This is not an easy fix as most sound systems are designed to work in well engineered venues. An expensive sound system can actually aggravate the problem. When local audio production company The Optim Audio Visual were called in to suggest a suitable fix, they designed a system that could deal with the intelligibility problems and still fit within the budget .
QM350 and HPI212S a big room for a small system
The answer was a system based around a combination of the Quest Engineering Q-motion and HPI series speaker system. the Q-motion series product (QM350i) is a compact 12" + 1" asymmetrical horn system designed for the A/V rental industry. These speaker systems are designed to project high intelligibility voice into acoustic environments that are reverberant spaces. The dispersion of the system can be focused to direct acoustic energy away from the walls and ceilings without also creating harsh "hot spots". For horizontal installation, the HF wave guides can be rotated to give the optimum coverage for the intended area.
Sub bass enhancement is by the Quest HPI series 212S boxes which also have a directional control characteristic and frequency profile that suits these types of venues. All amplifiers are also Quest QA series.
QM350i 3 box hang
The seating capacity is around 220 people for a standard event, though the venue can accommodate more. Damien Austerberry from The Optim Audio Visual commented "for a small system, it has a lot of full range output and it projects to the back of the venue clearly". the roof profile was a challenge for a tidy and effective installation but Optim were up to the job and were able to get the desired coverage with just three satellite boxes using the Quest hardware and some of their own engineering expertise. The light weight of the system also made installation easier.
With the new capability the venue now has for staging events, it has broadened its reach into the local community for attracting extra revenue raising activities. Always a consideration these days in a "tangible cost return" environment.
Installed and serviced by The Optim Audio Visual. Visit their site here.
QM350i tidy install