The Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts (Melbourne, Fla.; www.kingcenter.com) has reopened following major renovations totaling $1.3 million to improve the sight lines and concert sound system at the main theater, including installing four Lake Contour digital speaker processors and two Lake Mesa Quad EQ digital matrix processors, as well as a JBL VerTec system. The six Lake Technology processors, which were supplied along with a wireless touch pad and access point, control multiple zones of loudspeakers at the 2,000-seat performing arts hall. ASR ProSound were the sound consultants for the project.
One Lake Mesa Quad EQ provides individual control of the upper four and lower two cabinets in the main left/right line array. “That way, I have the flexibility to turn the bottom boxes up and down if I need to or turn them off,” says Rance Caldwell (pictured), technical supervisor and the house’s main FOH mixer. “Those boxes point downward into the orchestra pit, so I turn them off when we have an orchestral event.”
The second Lake Mesa Quad EQ handles processing for four onstage monitor mixes. The four Lake Contour processors control the high and low boxes in the center cluster, balcony fill, frontfill speakers positioned along the downstage lip, deck fill (speakers covering side areas in the lower seating area), and the main and deckfill sub systems.
ASR ProSound had previous experience with Lake equipment improving existing sound systems. “We did a similar project at the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville,” Holton recalls. “They were all set to buy a new P.A. I said, ‘Give me $30,000 and let me put in a new drive system.’ We put in a new Contour/Mesa system — and they kept the P.A.!”
