Galena Park HS and North Shore Senior HS AV and Lighting System Upgrades

Galena Park ISD Upgrades Audio Visual and Lighting Systems at Two High Schools to Deliver Flexible Performance Spaces for Multiple Scenarios

A Gathering Place for Students, Families, and the Community

The auditorium is more than just a facility at Galena Park High School and North Shore Senior High School—they are venues that help develop self-confidence, public speaking, and presentation skills. They serve as gathering spaces to bring students, families, and the community together through performances and events.

Whether the auditoriums are being used for lectures, award ceremonies, plays, musical theatre productions, or concert performances, they need to be equipped with flexible audio visual (AV) infrastructure and a lighting system to provide a memorable experience for the audience and performers. The need to be equipped for multiple scenarios, learning experiences, and production styles at both high schools necessitated upgrades to the existing incandescent lighting and analog audio systems to customized digital audio and  video, and LED lighting solutions to meet modern technology standards.

Galena Park ISD

Having worked with Galena Park ISD for 3 years on the North Shore 9th Grade Center and Woodland Acres Elementary, NCS developed a strategy that would future-proof both auditoriums, upgrading the Galena Park High School 1,500-seat hall and North Shore auditorium from outdated analog systems with basic speakers and mixers to robust AV infrastructures seen in professional artistic venues.

Solutions

• High-quality line array loudspeakers and subwoofers
• Delay and ceiling loudspeakers
• Digital mixing consoles
• Digital wireless microphone systems
• Projectors, screens, and digital video distribution systems

Designing a Space with State-of-the-Art AV Equipment and Lighting Systems

The NCS AV team, in collaboration with school officials and designer True North Consulting Group, replaced outdated systems for optimum configuration flexibility and enhanced live production capabilities. To ensure this goal was met, NCS installed and commissioned a top-to-bottom AV and lighting system using Crestron and QSC products that included audio mixing, processing, touchscreen displays, Bose power amplifiers, and Bose Line Array loudspeakers. Networked video endpoints and new projection systems, including a projector and screen, were also installed.

• Crestron Solutions – To improve the ease of use, the Crestron RMC3 control system was installed, which provides control and monitoring utilizing a single-source 10.1″ touchscreen that features advanced high-definition Smart Graphics® technology for the AV system and lighting and shading.
• QSC Solutions – The QSC Q-SYS™ Core 110f processor ensured a fully integrated audio, video, and control solution for installations with a mixture of analog and network channels to support the auditoriums.
• Bose Solutions – NCS utilized the Bose Room Match Line array system at each school to minimize sound distortion and improve perceived transient impact with four cabinets in each array. Galena park has four RMS 215 subwoofers flown in a center array, and North Shore High School has five RMS218s installed underneath the stage. The Bose PowerMatch PM8500N amplifiers with Dante Network cards were installed for concert-quality sound with a high level of scalability and configurability to ensure performance, efficiency, and ease of installation.

The audio and video systems were designed to be an all-digital networked solution from the mixing console all the way through to the amplifiers. This allowed NCS to use less cabling for easier maintenance as well as system expandability in the future.

NCS went beyond our normal scope of work, essentially serving as the general contractor on the project by demolishing and re-constructing the front of the stage at North Shore Senior High School to accommodate the five Bose dual 18 subwoofers. A contractor had to cut through the top of the stage at the locations where the speakers were installed. After removing the fill dirt underneath, holes were cut in the front of the stage, the sides were shored up, and the top was covered back up. The new cavities house the subwoofers and will be covered with acoustically transparent cloth for a clean, finished look.

Through this digital transformation, the auditoriums deliver an enriched entertainment experience with more ease to adjust and control the various equipment and components. Due to a unique hands-on approach and collaboration among contractors, the performance space features advanced digital mixing consoles and other digital signal-processing components that make this system very flexible yet user-friendly for students and teachers.