The newly opened Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center is part of an extremely busy senior citizens community in the Buffalo, New York area. This distinctive facility can offer a broad variety of live shows to their residents far beyond what they were able to do in the past. Formerly, they did not have a true performing arts space of their own, limiting what was possible. The design objective was to provide them with a much more flexible high-tech performance space thus enabling them to bring in more interesting shows.
If you hear someone say that this space is masterful, believe them! During the design-phase of the project, we affectionately called it “The Egg” inspired by the unique shape devised by the architect. At first glance, The Egg was going to be difficult to work with but we did and the end result has proven to be truly spectacular!
Acoustically, the challenge was to not allow the curves to generate echoes and other focused sound effects within the room. This was done with a variety of acoustically diffusive hard panels on the sidewalls and absorptive panels on the rear walls, working in conjunction with ceiling clouds to prevent focused energy and provide a good speech intelligibility into the seating area.
The room is comprised of several types of systems:
- Audio: In order to be user friendly for the visiting performance groups, we incorporated a versatile digital audio setup with the capability of bringing in analog audio consoles and/or guest digital consoles that can tie in directly to the systems. Now any group coming in can use the in-house Allen and Heath systems, or it will work for them to be able to use their own.
- Lighting: This is all LED color changing and incorporates a variety of fixtures for a variety of purposes.
- Rigging: There is a dead-hung stage rigging system, including a motorized main curtain that closes across the curved front of the stage.
- Video: The room incorporates high-definition video projection, cameras, and other systems.
All of the systems are expandable. The original design incorporated a larger inventory of virtually everything, but budgets are budgets and we had to get it operating at a much lower cost. That is the mark of a quality theater consultant, if we do say so ourselves. We strive to get the best for our clients within necessary budgetary constraints. The final result has been the creation of an enormously enjoyable performing arts venue! Go over to their website and take a look! Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center
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