Bedford, IN--For the students, faculty, administrators, and others who routinely found themselves onstage before the student body and members of the local community at the Bedford North Lawrence Performing Arts Center, the quality of the facility's sound reinforcement system was a sore subject. Speakers and performers alike routinely experienced RF interference, excessive dropouts, and poor sound quality as they struggled with the antiquated wireless microphone system.
After determining this unfortunate state of affairs had existed for far too long, officials for the North Lawrence Community Schools decided an upgrade was in order, and they found their solution with wireless technology from MIPRO, distributed in North America by Kansas City, MO-based Avlex Corporation.
According to Nathan Lowery, manager of the Bedford North Lawrence Performing Arts Center, whose responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of audio and lighting in addition to supervising students who assist with productions, the acquisition of the MIPRO equipment was most timely. "Our old wireless system had really seen its better days," Lowery said. "We actually had to keep the receivers on stage in order for the transmitters to be heard. Between the subpar audio quality and the frequent dropouts, the system compromised everything we tried to do."
Sold by John Schaeffer of Indianapolis, IN-based Indy Pro Audio, the MIPRO system purchased by the North Lawrence Community Schools for their 1,900-seat proscenium style theater consists of four ACT-707D Dual-Channel Receivers, six ACT-707TM PLL (Phase-locked loop) Synthesized bodypack transmitters used in conjunction with the MU-55LX lavaliere microphones, and two ACT-707HM PLL Synthesized handheld microphone transmitters.
Lowery was quick to point out that in addition to the equipment being very intuitive to operate, the documentation was equally informative. "After taking delivery of the equipment," Lowery noted, "we had everything up and running in less than a week. The system is very user friendly and the manuals are excellent. I never had to make a single call for technical support. I was particularly impressed with MIPRO's ACT (Automatic Channel Targeting) technology, which makes identifying and locking in open frequencies a quick and painless process. We can identify an available frequency and program the transmitter in less than a minute. This is a very nice feature. Similarly, the range of the new equipment is tremendous. We now have the receivers stationed at the FOH mix position, which is approximately 135 feet from the stage and have actually tested the equipment's range and found it to be far greater than that."
Lowery reports the new system is proving to be incredibly popular will everyone who uses it. "The principal and other school officials have become very fond of the mobility the system affords," Lowery said. "Nobody wants to use a wired microphone anymore!"
Avlex Corporation… www.avlex.com
