After integrator EMI Audio added a new sound system to the University’s St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel, the results were so good that they added Bose® components to several other locations around campus
Framingham, Massachusetts, July 1, 2013 – Four years ago, the University of St. Thomas, based in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and one of the largest and oldest Catholic institutions of higher learning in the United States, realized it needed better sound in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel on the school’s campus. Locally-based EMI Audio was hired to do the job, and they chose components from Bose® Professional Systems Division, including several Panaray® MA12 mid/high modular line array modules, as well as ControlSpace® Designer™ software (a graphical user interface tool for the design configuration and control of systems consisting of Engineered Sound Processors), PowerMatch® PM8500N power amplifiers, and Bose CC-64 control centers.
The outcome was so good that the University decided next to outfit its football stadium with 16 Bose Panaray 802 Series III loudspeakers. The school then asked EMI Audio to enhance the sound in the Atrium of its Minneapolis Campus Law School, where two Bose MA12EX mid/high modular line array modules were installed, and in the law school’s boardroom, where a Bose Panaray 502 A loudspeaker was installed. EMI Audio employed ControlSpace software to design both systems.
Based on the success of these installations in terms of sound quality and reliability, over the course of the next four years, EMI continued adding more Bose technology and products across the St. Thomas campus, including the following projects and components:
Athletic complex:
Field House: 24 LT 9400 mid/high-frequency loudspeakers; six MB12 modular bass loudspeakers)
Arena: Four LT 9400s, six LT 6400s, four MB12 and 28 FreeSpace® DS 100SE loudspeakers)
Aquatics center: 33 DS 100SE loudspeakers
Hall Of Fame: Panaray MA12 and DS 16S loudspeakers
Student Center:
Scooters nightclub/restaurant: 25 DS 100F loudspeakers and 14 FreeSpace 3 Series II Acoustimass® modules
Living Room lounge: Two L1® Model II portable systems
Bowling Alley: 31 DS 100F loudspeakers
Wolfe Ballroom/Pre-function: 54 FreeSpace DS 100F loudspeakers and five FreeSpace 3 Series II modules
Outdoor plaza: Two Panaray MA12EX modules.
“Bose was the obvious choice for these applications,” says Jeff Geisler, Director of Outside Sales at EMI Audio. “Bose was the only company with all of the right components to address all of the unique spaces here. Some are small and intimate, others are huge and expansive. Some require water- and weather-resistant coverings, like the speakers installed by the pool and on the Student Center’s outdoor patio. A restaurant, a basketball court, football stadium – you name it, the school has it, and Bose was able to provide the perfect product for each of them.”
Geisler especially credits the Bose ControlSpace ESP-88 processor – the school has 18 of them installed around its campus – for keeping the systems perfectly tuned for each space and application. And over all that time there have been, in Geisler’s words, zero equipment failures. “When you combine that with the kind of tech support we always get from Bose, and really unique products like the Bose Modeler® predictive analysis software and the Auditioner playback system that lets us literally step inside the design and accurately experience the sound system’s performance, there’s just no reason to go anywhere else,” he says.
