The University of Birmingham’s Medical School, one of the largest in Europe, has installed a Renkus-Heinz beam-steering system in its 450-seat Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, following a review that identified poor speech intelligibility and limited coverage in the space. The theatre’s acoustics presented a challenge, with a highly reflective stage due to hard wooden flooring and a projection screen, contrasting with more absorptive finishes in the tiered seating area, while the existing system operated as a single line without time alignment.
The installation, carried out by AV integrator GVAV, treated the theatre as two separate zones. Two IC16 digitally steerable column arrays are wall-mounted either side of the projection screen at the front, each featuring eight individually steerable beams, while two IC8 steerable line arrays were installed behind panels on each side of the rear seating area, time-aligned with the IC16s via adjustable DSP delay to prevent audible delays between loudspeakers.
The university’s long-term plan is to upgrade 15 lecture theatres across its campus using products from Renkus-Heinz’s Iconyx Gen5, UBX Series and CX Series ranges, with CUK having already assessed 11 further teaching spaces alongside the Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre.
Mark Bromfield, director of system solution sales at CUK, the distributor supporting the project from initial conversations through to implementation, said: “The acoustics at each end of the room presented several challenges. Listeners could hear sound coming from multiple directions with noticeable delays between loudspeakers, which compromised intelligibility and contributed to listener fatigue.”
CUK conducted acoustic modelling followed by a live demonstration of the Renkus-Heinz Iconyx system, leading to the specification of four beam-steering arrays.
Bromfield added: “During information-packed lectures, it is critical for students to hear every word. By directing audio precisely where it’s needed, the Iconyx system now ensures every seat receives the same clear, intelligible audio.” He noted the system achieved this with a significantly smaller number of loudspeakers compared with the previous setup.
James Ball, AV designer and project lead at the University of Birmingham, said: “The improved audio quality was a guaranteed win, but what really helped drive wider adoption was the economics. By reducing labor and infrastructure requirements, we were able to invest in better technology while stretching available budgets further, allowing us to upgrade more teaching spaces across the campus.”
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