Contact:
Scotty Perks, Operations Manager
Advanced Lighting & Sound Project Manager Bob Sullivan Systems Integrator: Bob Minchella The Fitzgerald Public School District is located in the southwest corner of Macomb County in the city of Warren. It is a K-12 district with a current enrollment of approximately 3200 students covering about four square miles. The District operates six schools: an Early Childhood Center, three Elementary schools grades K-5, one Middle School grades 6-8, and one High School grades 9-12. The District recently completed a major project which redesigned and upgraded the technological capabilities of every school and classroom, with multiple networked computer labs, computers in every classroom, and video distribution between rooms and buildings.
The Task: To upgrade the current audio and video system in the high school auditorium to meet the needs of the current curriculum and support community programs that frequent the facility.
The Solution: Scotty Perks, Operations Manager, at Fitzgerald High School, contacted Bob Minchella, Systems Integrator at Advanced Lighting & Sound to assist in assessing the auditorium needs. The first item was speaker selection and placement. The underlying physical barriers needed to be overcome. “The current system used a central cluster that had no physical way of projecting audio information to roughly 60% of the facility, and the other 40% was done so without proper system alignment and tuning,” said Bob Sullivan, Senior Design Engineer at Advanced Lighting & Sound.
After identifying logical, reachable mounting solutions, with the help of Bob Sheridan, Field and Rigging Supervisor at Advanced, a comprehensive speaker system was designed addressing all of the facilities seating areas. EAW speakers were chosen for the audio system’s main cluster seating area, left and right of the room, under the balcony and stage monitors. A Soundcraft K2 was chosen for mixing, with a Mackie 1604VLZ as a secondary mixer. Twelve Shure wireless microphone systems with assorted lavalier and handheld transmitters were installed along with Audix and Crown microphones to round out the system.
Defining the video system required some creative thinking. The facility already had a large motorized screen located over the center of the stage, but they needed more screen space. To fix this problem, two additional 15’ x 20’ motorized Da-Lite screens were mounted stage left and right to accommodate larger groups using the facility. Three Eiki Powerhouse LC-X2U 3000 ANSI lumen projectors were selected with various switchers, scan converters and preview monitors to finish the system.
“Fitzgerald High School is accredited by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. Their goal is to educate and nurture each student to acquire the academic, vocational, and social skills needed to become a self-sufficient citizen.” In keeping with their mission statement, Fitzgerald High School continues to educate their students and the new district renovations have been an added bonus to this growing district.
