Mount Holyoke College

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Enhance The Sound Clarity And Quality, Both Acoustically And Vocally, In The Abbey And Interfaith Chapels At Mount Holyoke College.

Two chapels (Abbey Chapel and the Inter-Faith Chapel) at Mount Holyoke College had challenges for years to have successful sound quality for acoustics and vocals. Through a collaborative effort between Mount Holyoke College and CCS, a strategy was devised to create sound clarity for both speech and music.

An updated, easy to use speech reinforcement and audio playback recording system was placed in the Abbey Chapel, with a smaller system in the adjacent Inter-Faith Chapel. New microphones, mixers/amplifiers and a unique brand of speakers, Danley Sound Labs, were integrated into the space. Additionally, CCS provided audio feeds to offer live streaming for future chapel events.

The final result: The Abbey and adjacent Inter-Faith Chapels now have clear, high-quality vocal and acoustic sound, with constant intelligibility, and increased audience participation. Best of all, the chapels were technologically-enhanced without losing their historic appearance.

South Hadley, MA – CCS Presentation Systems, a New England based audio visual integrator, recently completed an A/V installation project at Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

The college’s chapels, the Abbey Chapel and Inter-Faith Chapel, were slated to attain adequate sound quality for music and speech. In previous efforts to correct the problem, several sound systems were installed and modifications were made to the ceiling for the organs, helping acoustically, but not vocally.

Through a collaborative effort between Mount Holyoke’s Design & Engineering Team within the Media Services Department and CCS, a strategy was devised to create sound clarity for both speech and music.

Project Description

An updated, easy to use speech reinforcement and audio playback recording system would be placed in the Abbey Chapel, with a smaller system in the Inter-Faith Chapel. New microphones, mixers/amplifiers, and other system components would be integrated into the space. Speakers from Danley Sound Labs would be installed into the main Abbey Chapel.

Danley’s speakers have a proprietary design, providing the acoustical pattern control of the common line array speakers, without the labor-intensive setup of the common line array. These speakers also provide the ability to control the audio pattern, meaning that no matter the pitch of the voice spoken into the microphone, the sound projected would be clear.

Additionally, CCS added audio feeds to enhance live streaming for future chapel events. The final result: The Abbey and Inter-Faith Chapels now have clear, high-quality vocal and acoustic sound with constant intelligibility. Audience participation has increased. Best of all, the chapels were technologically-enhanced without losing their original and historic appearance.