Education standards in Singapore rank among the highest in the world, and the
facilities to be found in Singaporean schools are suitably impressive. The most
recent example can be found within the state-of-the-art senior school campus at
Dulwich College (Singapore), where an impressive 700 seat auditorium is now
available for students to use. Providing equally state-of-the-art sound reinforcement
is an audio installation based on Renkus-Heinz’s VARIAi modular installation array.

Not to be confused with the London-based school of the same name, Dulwich
College (Singapore) opened in 2014 in the Bukit Batok region of the city. It is the
seventh international school to bear the name, following other locations in Asia
including Shanghai, Beijing, and Seoul.

The auditorium is located within the school’s new performing arts centre. Boasting a
façade inspired by the Barry Building in London, the facility occupies some 301,390
square feet and incorporates two black box theatres, a library, a gymnasium, a
dance studio and more. At its heart is the auditorium, with an AV design courtesy of
CCW Consultants, which was then made a reality by leading systems integrator
Electro-Acoustics Systems Pte Ltd (EAS). The theatre’s shape provided a particular
challenge for the design of the sound reinforcement system.

“The auditorium is a dual-level theatre consisting of a wide stage and a short front-
to-rear audience area, so the flexibility of the VARIA system was the key to
providing the desired results,” explains EAS Senior Systems Engineer Chua Cong
Wei.

The full system is based on an L-C-R configuration of three line array hangs, each
comprising five VARIAi VAX101 10-inch line array modules. “VARIAi gave us the
modular options of three different cabinet angles, so we were able to create long,
middle and short throw combinations all in a single configurable array,” Chua
continues. “This was accomplished by having three 7-degree boxes on the top,
followed by a 15-degree and a 22.5-degree box below – a variation of waveguides
for targeted horizontal coverage. As a result, the VARIAi array switches from 90-
degrees (top) to 120-degrees (bottom), so we can optimize sound coverage in
every corner of the venue.”

Low frequency support is delivered courtesy of two flown VAX115Si dual 15-inch
subwoofers. Moving deeper into the audience area, four wall-mounted TRX121 12-
inch enclosures, located two per-side, provide side fill coverage. Finally, performers
are served by four Renkus Heinz CFX1121M monitors.

“Complete coverage from the stall to the upper balcony level is achieved with only
five cabinets per array,” adds Chua. “For this venue, the VARIAi triumphs over a
traditional line array, both sonically and visually.”