The original McAllen Civic Center opened in 1959 and was home to the Valley Symphony Orchestra, countless dance recitals, music concerts, and school graduations. Residents felt a strong connection to the old building; however, studies proved necessary renovations would be more expensive than building a new facility.
The city’s recently completed convention center was very successful. Land was available next to the facility so the city sold the old site to developers for $9 million and moved forward with plans to build a new 1,800-seat hall. The project was funded almost entirely by the City of McAllen as an amenity to its diverse population. Its intent was to showcase local talent and bring in the touring Broadway productions that avoided McAllen due to the poor condition of the original civic center. Jaffe Holden, Schuler Shook, Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture, and ERO Architects began the project began in 2014 and completed it in 2016.
Be sure to read Part One of this story.
Audio/Video Systems Design
The AV systems for the performing arts center have to support a wide range of programming needs. Jaffe Holden designed systems to support everything from vocal reinforcement to aid the symphony conductor in communicating with the audience, to amplified concert, dance, or theatre productions, in addition to large scale touring events.
Projects of this size and scope have to determine the role of installed systems versus a touring system or a large rental system. This can be a question of budget, but it is also a philosophical one involving how the facility will be operated. The McAllen Performing Arts Center wanted a system that would integrate into the visual aesthetic, support small to mid-size productions, and also easily integrate with rented systems used for larger events. Jaffe Holden ensured the audio and video systems had the proper infrastructure to support touring shows including power, easy access to signal lines to patch into the house system, and proper rigging to support flying tour systems.
The Infrastructure
It’s best to begin with the infrastructure. A complete and varied set of audio, video, and control system infrastructure provides for today’s needs, and also provides a complete path to the future. Equipment comes and goes, but the wire and fiber in the walls needs to last much longer. Analog audio, digital audio over AES and network, video over HD-SDI and network, and dry fiber and category lines are located throughout the facility on panels and between the major system racks. This means that any type of signal can be routed throughout the venue.
The Loudspeaker Systems
The house audio system includes left, center, and right main loudspeaker clusters as well as stage lip front fill, under balcony, and over balcony fill loudspeakers to fill in at the margins of the main loudspeaker cluster coverage areas. Left and right subwoofers are positioned just below the left and right loudspeaker clusters. There are two subwoofers on each side. The lower frequencies are divided between them such that one provides the impact, and the other provides the lower, deeper frequencies, or the rumble.
The Console and Digital Signal Processing System
This venue needed a console to function at high levels for different types of events. A Yamaha CL5 digital mixing console provides exactly that capability. This console transports audio in and out over Dante network-based audio. Its connection to remote stage racks is as simple as making two network connections. The output of the console also travels over Dante to the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) system. This DSP system is the brains of the audio systems. This is where all of the signal routing takes place for the performance loudspeaker systems and the auxiliary audio systems. System equalization and timing is also programmed in the DSP system, as well as the swap from house console feeds to road show feeds.
The Auxiliary Systems
The auxiliary systems include the backstage and front of house paging and program systems, the ADA assisted listening system, and the production communication system. Feeds from the mixing console as well as from a stereo microphone in the theatre are selected and/or mixed to provide the program audio source for these systems. The production communication system allows the production staff to communicate with each other during a performance. There are both wired stations and wireless stations available for use.
Portable Equipment
A collection of loose portable audio equipment was specified to provide a toolbox of tools for use in a variety of situations. This includes wired and wireless microphones, mic cable, speaker cable, mic stands, stage monitor, and other portable loudspeakers that can be used in various configurations, as needed to support local productions.
Measuring Results
During rehearsal time with the Valley Symphony and its music director, Peter Dabrowski, we were able to listen to the hall in back-to-back children’s concerts. We moved the orchestra forward and backward, placed them on risers of different heights, and adjusted the ceiling of the shell to get the best balance of sound.
Placing low cello risers under the cello instruments increased their level of impact. They were full and bright on stage, but needed the extra resonance of the riser to give the correct balance between the basses and violins. Between concerts, our team asked questions and received comments and feedback used to fine tune the hall.
Measurements after the opening confirmed the full range of acoustic response ranged from 1.4 seconds with all drapes deployed (estimated 1.2 seconds occupied) to over 2.2 seconds in symphony mode with the full audience present. This is dramatic tunablility and flexibility!
Mark Holden is chairman and lead acoustic designer at Jaffe Holden. He has collaborated on hundreds of diverse performance and exhibition space designs throughout the world. Holden thrives on the creative design processes that call on his unique skills as an engineer, physicist, communicator, and jazz musician to create superior acoustic environments. In January of 2016, he released Acoustics of Multi-Use Performing Arts Centers, a guide to achieving outstanding acoustics in flexible spaces, published by Taylor & Francis Group. www.jaffeholden.com