Article: Grady Gammage gets sound system upgrade

[DavidC]

ASU Gammage’s $1.2 million sound upgrade


David

[Rood]

"The redesign expands the number of speakers from 20 to 64, spread throughout the auditorium to provide even coverage and eliminate dead spots. These include a pair of line arrays or stacked speakers hanging from the proscenium."

We can only imagine how those 64 speakers look, spread throughout the auditorium with two line arrays of stacked speakers hanging from the proscenium.

GGMA has excellent acoustics, but throw 64 speakers into any hall and you are bound to get mixed results. Where is Ethel Merman when you need her.

[clydethecat]

In fact, the system was so old that many roadshows didn’t use it at all, instead hanging their own loudspeakers around the hall — with decidedly mixed results.

Roadshows that are carrying their own sound will still want to use their own, in almost any venue.

[Roderick Grant]

I sat in the back row, aisle seat, next to the entrance. At the beginning of the show, two little girls were onstage singing, "Let me entertain you, let me make you smile ..." barely audible. Suddenly, without warning, Ethel made her appearance through the door, about 3 feet from my left ear. "SING OUT, BABY JUNE!!" thundered through my bones as Mama strode down the aisle like a Panzer. My hearing returned before the end of Act I.