Arizona State University Chooses EAR for Katzin Hall Upgrade
When Arizona State University decided to upgrade the audio recording system in prestigious Katzin Concert Hall to meet latest standards for digital recording, they turned to EAR Professional Audio/Video. It was necessary for the installation to occur on a tight schedule,since Katzin is one of the most used performance halls in the complex.
This 350-seat theater opens into a beautiful fountain courtyard and houses a nine-foot a Hamburg Steinway, an American Steinway, and a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano. Primarily used for solo and chamber music recitals, the hall provides a warm acoustical atmosphere with a maple-paneled stage, multi-faceted walls, and an acoustically engineered billowed ceiling. This environment required a high performance, unobtrusive, yet flexible state of the art microphone solution. ASU turned to John Gibson at EAR to design the new system realizing they needed professional results and flexibility for future plans.
EAR installed a Schoeps CM X/Y series stereo microphone in addition to a pair of Schoeps CCM compact sub-cardioid microphones to achieve the results. These microphones are compact in size, and provide highly precise sound reproduction with very balanced off axis response characteristics that will help recreate the live performance experience of Katzin hall on recordings.
Plans are in the works to upgrade the hall’s acoustics and possibly add automated broadcast quality HD camera systems . The ASU Music building complex has ongoing demands for video and audio recordings in all four performance venues. Media management is a strong part of their future and EAR looks forward to the opportunity to help provide an integrated solution that further compliments this first phase of production quality enhancement at ASU.
EAR is proud to help Arizona State and many other national and local professional audio and video venues with new systems and upgrades to existing facilities.