California's San Mateo Union High Schools District is currently in the process of remodelling - and, in some instances, totally replacing - the theatres of six of its high schools: Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills, and the flagship San Mateo location. Theatre consulting for each of the venues was provided by San Francisco's Shalleck Collaborative, which specified L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems throughout.
Two of the projects - the new 614-capacity Aragon venue and refurbished 90-year-old Burlingame space with 593 seats and reopened balcony - have already now been completed. Both rooms feature left and right arrays comprised of six Kiva elements flown beneath a single SB18 and driven by LA4 amplified controllers.
The remaining four theatres are all scheduled for completion prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year. Two of the schools boast nearly 800 seats and feature long, narrow room geometries, which will benefit from left and right arrays of eight Kiva with a central cluster of three SB18i arranged in a cardioid configuration. A third school, with close to 1,000 seats and a single balcony, will feature a total of six Kiva two Kilo mid-frequency extension cabinets and a single SB18 per side, while San Mateo (1,540 seats) will utilise two arrays of eight larger KARAi hung below two SB18i.
According to Shalleck Collaborative Principal Ian Hunter: "L-Acoustics' dV-DOSC has always been one of my favorite loudspeakers, especially for theatre because the vocal quality is so wonderful. But I have to say that the essence of dV-DOSC - and now Kara - translates down very well into the much smaller and more cost-effective Kiva enclosures. They possess the same clarity and truth of reproduction, particularly in the vocal bandwidth, and really sound fantastic in these relatively intimate spaces."
