Class Act
Calvary Christian College’s auditorium in Carbrook, Queensland, needed a PA front-of-house refit and JBL Professional products provided a straight-A’s solution.
7 February 2023
Story: Graeme Hague
Calvary Christian College has two campuses located in Queensland that are dedicated to providing a Christian-based education to students from early age schooling through to Year 12. One is in Springwood where the curriculum extends to Year 6, and the second at Carbrook which goes all the way through to Year 12. Like all schools now, Calvary Christian College has welcomed and embraced the demand for modern technology in educational institutions, and it is constantly upgrading and improving its facilities.
This project involved refitting an ageing PA system in the school’s auditorium area. The college regularly celebrates religious occasions as well as the day-to-day events of any school, and the presentations can be a little more involved that just your standard lectern microphone, so clarity and excellent coverage took on an extra importance.
ASSEMBLY LINE
School assembly areas are always a challenge. By default, they require wide, open spaces with normally wooden polished floors (often doubling as some kind of sports court), high ceilings and the dreaded ‘square hall’ design, all combining to create an acoustic environment that mimics being inside a biscuit tin. Add to this a hundred or so noisy students, and it’s a space that requires a PA system that can be focused and tuned to minimise audio reflections and unwanted reverberation. Also, many of these older buildings weren’t constructed with hanging points for speakers in mind —just whacking a couple of masonry anchors in the wall would do the trick and you’re good to go.
BSG PICKS JBL
Calvary College reached out to Josiah Kerridge and the team at Brisbane Sound Group. Josiah and BSG had helped out the college with AV equipment in the past, and the company enjoys a long-standing relationship with the school. As Josiah explains, “Ongoing clients like Calvary College are of special importance because there is a level of trust and understanding between everyone. The school has no doubts that BSG will come up with the best solution within the available budget, and we honour that trust by doing exactly that and ensuring the results go above and beyond their expectations. Calvary College doesn’t have to bother with tenders or added red tape — they know we’ll deliver the highest quality products and service available. Put simply, we’ll look after them.”
A time frame for the project was arranged for within the school holidays so there would be no disruption for the students.
Josiah was confident a JBL line array design provided by CMI Music & Audio was the answer. On both sides of the stage were hung seven JBL BRX308-LA elements. Fortunately, an I-Beam was located in the roof structure that allowed for I-Beam clamps and a good, safe hanging point, and cabling was relatively straightforward. The subs for the system didn’t go in quite so smoothly. Four JBL BRX325SP subs were specified for under the stage where they would fit perfectly. However, the access to that space wasn’t wide enough to squeeze the subs through, so BSG crew had to break out the carpentry skills to lift the stage flooring and drop the BRX325SPs into place. Yes, someone made sure everything was hooked up before screwing the floor back down. In the end, it was always a neat solution for tucking the subs out of sight.
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Calvary College knows we’ll deliver the highest quality products and service available. Put simply, we’ll look after them.
PARTNER UP
As Josiah reports, the folks at Calvary College was very happy and “blown away” by the performance of the new PA. The JBL line array is an enormous improvement over the previous speakers which had been in place for 15 years — as you’d expect — and is a result of Brisbane Sound Group’s careful choice of the right product and expert installation. CMI Music & Audio worked in partnership with BSG all the way, always ready to help and offer any advice and technical assistance. Josiah says, “We have complete faith in the reliability of all of CMI’s product range, they’re quick to support us whenever it’s required, and the people at CMI are frequently dropping by, checking in, making sure we have everything we need. CMI is great to deal with for any of our projects.”
The auditorium at Calvary Christian College at Carbrook is now well equipped for the next decade or more, thanks to Josiah and his team at Brisbane Sound Group, CMI Music & Audio, and JBL Professional products all passing the tests with flying colours.
Calvary Christian College: www.calvarycc.qld.edu.au
Brisbane Sound Group: www.brisound.com.au
CMI Music & Audio: www.cmi.com.au
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