University of Toronto Scarborough installs Renkus-Heinz ecosystem

This Canadian university has chosen Renkus-Heinz to transform the sound of six new conference rooms. UBX8 and CX61 speakers deliver the precision and clarity needed to ensure students can hear every word.

The University of Toronto Scarborough, founded in 1964, is one of the highest-rated in Canada and has long been a leader in offering innovative and engaging approaches to higher education. The institution prides itself on finding new ways to create environments in which students can thrive, and the construction of the Sam Ibrahim Building has been instrumental in this ethos..

The spacious five-story building houses conference rooms, faculty offices and collaboration spaces. Six special conference rooms were instrumental in the development: Conveyor, Cave, Keystone, Collaborative, Cloud and the iconic Arrow Group innovation room (formerly known as Campfire), which features a 360° seating arrangement.

These modern spaces, individually designed, presented the same challenge in terms of audio: the need for exceptional coherence and crystal clear clarity in teacher voice.

To tackle this task, the university partnered with Contact Distribution and the integrator Global Unified Solution Services (Global USS). Together, designed and installed a ecosistema Renkus-Heinz tailored to each room, based on UBX series passive steering columns y C series point source speakers for its directivity and clarity of sound.

The main architects, Zebra y AGAIN, They set out to create an emotionally stimulating study environment that fosters inclusive and sensory learning.

“These rooms look and sound radically different than anything I have seen to engage students and make the learning experience more effective and rewarding”, explains Bill Coons, director de Contract Distribution.

The distribution, The design and materials used in conference rooms can significantly influence the way sound propagates and is perceived by attendees. Factors such as reverberation can seriously affect speech clarity.

Understanding these psychoacoustic challenges allowed the project team to choose an audio system that delivers sound with optimal clarity., reducing the reverb effects and any other acoustic problem that may make it difficult to understand speech. With variable tiers and inclination angles, The challenge was to find a way to guarantee one hundred percent intelligibility in each space..

“The main challenge for us was to find a solution for rooms already designed, with cable ducts already installed”, explains John Busza, CTS-D, Global USS systems designer. “Our installation team had to adapt to the available space, which made Renkus-Heinz adaptable solutions the perfect solution”.

“I was at an industry event with John early in the project and expressed concern that the speaker arrays we would use in the larger rooms would not offer enough coverage.”, explains Blake Markle, Technology Manager for Classrooms and Film Services at the University of Toronto Scarborough. These rooms have capacity for 100-200 people and all have irregular ceilings with angles and materials that make the use of ceiling or hanging speakers impossible. We could only use two arrays on the front wall.

“The arrays Renkus-Heinz UBX8 They are small but powerful; will fill the room with sound, and the upper speakers will reach the rear rows”, John clarifies..

Four of the conference rooms received a pair of UBX8 speakers each, while the fifth room doubled down on this approach. These pre-directed passive column speakers offer precise coverage, intelligibility and optimal sound quality.

They were chosen 30 CX61 speakers for the Arrow Group innovation show due to its wide dispersion, the flexibility of a rotating speaker and a subwoofer sized appropriately for the vocal range.

“The overall quality of audio intelligibility for which Renkus-Heinz is renowned is always a factor to consider when transmitting sound in a school.”: “Students need to hear the message clearly.”, comments Busza.

Due to the variety of stands, coverage was easy to model in some rooms, while in others more location and tilt adjustments were required. UBX8 speakers' passive UniBeam technology helps deliver the consistent coverage needed. The columns were placed on the sides of the dual projection screens and the 120° dispersion brought the sound to the center of the first rows. The UBX8's precise, asymmetric control of the vertical pattern was also useful for the staggered layout., ensuring crystal clear audio in all seats.

“In a particularly difficult room, wiring connections were lower than integrators preferred when analyzing EASE Focus modeling, prioritizing covering connections with the bottom of the speaker rather than running wiring into the wall”, remember Busza.

This caused the speakers to be significantly lower than necessary.. Together with Contact Distribution, a second pair of UBX8 was mounted on top of the first pair, rotated 180° so that the downward tilt of the vertical dispersion was oriented upward. This provided a longer arrangement and, therefore, crystal clear audio coverage in the rear rows.

The Arrow Group Innovation Hall's 360° seating arrangement challenged the team to find an audio solution that offered the same professional audio quality. ”

The hexagonal hall has six seating sections with six rows each, which means that lectures are given in a circle. Six angled walls above the sections house large direct-view LED videos. in the center, where the conference is held, the ceiling is higher and open. The first two rows of seats are exposed to this large space, while the rest are located under a lower roof.

“The layout of the room meant that a group of suspended speakers would affect the visibility of the screens and would not reach the back rows of the audience”, Busza continues. “Instead, It was decided to mount point source boxes along the bottom of the center perimeter with five speakers on each bulkhead: three oriented towards the back of the audience and two towards the front”.

Global USS opted for CX61 speakers due to its 150° horizontal and 60° vertical dispersion, and its compact design has worked well in a very small space.

“This meant that the front section of the audience would receive the sound from behind; "There was no other viable solution in space.", says Busza. "However, “The performance characteristics for which Renkus-Heinz is renowned would ensure high intelligibility.”.

The Sam Ibrahim Building's six theaters are now equipped to deliver lectures with crystal-clear clarity and no distractions from reverb. With impeccable audio as a cornerstone, The University of Toronto Scarborough is setting new standards for educational environments.

Renkus-Heinz UBX8 and CX61 speakers deliver the precision and clarity needed to ensure students can hear every word, which helps maintain attention, while teachers can be sure that their presentations will be impactful.