Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Challenge:

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland Campus was a new facility that would feature six primary performance halls: a 1,100-seat concert hall; the Ina and Jack Kay Theatre, a 650-seat proscenium theatre; the 250-seat Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall; a 200-seat dance theatre; a 200-seat studio theatre and a 100-seat theatre lab.

Solution:

Installing the new AV system at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center included a massive audio cable infrastructure. All of the performance spaces can be tied together through nearly 60 patch bays in the central recording room so there was a massive amount of cabling that was necessary, with approximately 350,000 and 400,000 feet of wire.

The central recording room is the heart of the system. From there, numerous tie lines run out to each of the performance spaces allowing operators to patch practically any signal from any venue to just about anywhere in the facility. For example, in overflow seating situations, audio and video signals from the concert hall could be easily routed into additional rooms with a quick patching.

A combination of more Crown amplifiers are spread out among the six halls as well as employed on a number of portable systems that can be rolled around between the various classrooms and rehearsal spaces as needed. Like Crown amplifiers, EAW loudspeakers are used throughout the facility. Chosen for their sound quality, EAW speaker series models are included in this installation.