John D. Millett Hall on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio is best recognised as home to the school's popular RedHawks basketball and volleyball teams. But the 9,200-capacity venue is also well known as the site for the school's commencement exercises, as well as concerts and other events from a list of guests as varied as Yo-Yo Ma, Beck, Bill Cosby, The Fray, O.A.R., Béla Fleck, Jay Leno and the Dalai Lama.
With the facility's aging distributed PA system struggling to even accommodate announcements at sporting events, the school hired Cincinnati-based L-Acoustics certified provider Loud & Clear, Inc. to supply a sound reinforcement system each time it hosted a concert. Now, Loud & Clear has turned a satisfied rental client into an even happier fixed install client with the recent installation of an L-Acoustics Kara system.
Used for concerts and games alike, the new sound system is comprised of left and right 12-enclosure Kara arrays flown on the north end of the court. Ground-stacked below each array is a stack of four SB28 subs arranged in a cardioid configuration. Six LA8 amplified controllers housed in custom racks power and process the entire system.
"The Kara system in Millett Hall is being used for everything from sporting events and concerts to lectures and graduation ceremonies," says Eric Cimini, installation manager at Loud & Clear. "One of the biggest things the client requested going into this project was that the coverage be extremely consistent throughout the entire venue. They wanted everyone to hear exactly the same thing - from the cheerleaders right below the PA to the athletes on the court to the final row of seats at the other end of the arena. Looking at these little 12-box arrays, one might not expect them to cover the space as well as they do, but Kara totally delivers."
