WEST POINT BRINGS HIGH FIDELITY AUDIO
TO HISTORIC CADET MESS HALL

—New System Includes Yamaha DME32, 01V, Bose Line Array—

Located on the banks of New York's Hudson River, the United States Military Academy at West Point is currently celebrating its second century.

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 5, 2002)—The neo-Gothic Cadet Mess Hall at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is an impressive structure in its own right. Configured like an enormous spoked wheel with six dining wings radiating from a central elevated "poop deck," the unique space features high ceilings, exposed wood timbers, slate floors, various military artifacts and a 70 x 30 foot mural. The room can seat all of the nearly 4,000 Cadets at one time, providing the Academy the ability to address the entire Corps simultaneously, as well as feed them—a feat the kitchen and staff can miraculously accomplish in less than 25 minutes. When such luminaries as Norman Schwarzkopf or Henry Kissinger come to address the cadets at West Point, the Cadet Mess Hall is one of the few viable venues on campus.

Although architecturally and historically significant, the space has proven extremely challenging from an acoustical standpoint. Designing a sound system that could deliver high intelligibility—as well as musical audio quality—for the room's multiple uses was a very tall order. And, ensuring that the room's architectural details were not disturbed added yet another level of complexity to the task.

The Corps of Cadets includes nearly 4,000 members, with about 1,200 new Cadets entering the Academy each year.

At West Point's Bicentennial Founders Day celebration in March, the Academy debuted a new sound system featuring high fidelity audio; touchscreen-controlled DSP flexibility for various events; and advanced mixing capabilities to handle choir duties, jazz and brass bands, vocal groups and other visiting ensembles. Troy Jensen, Vice President of Operations at Altel Systems, the Brewster, (NY)–based systems integrator, served as project executive and designer of the new system, with William Fedorko as project engineer. "They were frustrated with the situation in the room and decided it was time to implement a new system," explains Jensen. "Because of the room's spoked-wheel design, high plaster ceilings, slate floors, masonry and very little in terms of absorption, the reverb times were excessive—ranging between three and four seconds. The real challenge was to put in a system that would improve the direct-to-reverberant ratio, maintain a high level of intelligibility, and maintain the architectural integrity of the room."

Altel Systems of Brewster, NY, designed a sound system for the Cadet Mess Hall that could deliver high intelligibility and audio quality for the room's multiple uses without disturbing the architectural details.

Based on the variety of events and the sheer size of the facility, Jensen determined that a DSP-based control system would be required as a central control element of the design. "We needed to be able to pick different presets because they sometimes have events which may only use half the facility, or even a single 'spoke' of the wheel," he explains. "We'd need to easily mute different parts of the system, and DSP control lends itself to that very well. The Yamaha DME-32 seemed to be an excellent choice because of its ability to provide a larger number of inputs and outputs, plus its flexibility to easily expand them without having to buy additional DSP power.

"The DME-32 is used for all system processing, including delay, crossover, EQ and compression. Six presets were configured to accommodate event needs, ranging from "all ON" and then muting various system subsets, down to a single wing. Presets are selectable on Crestron touchscreens, which also provide the ability to adjust levels, turn on the system, and activate CD, DVD, or cassette players. "Virtually anyone can walk up and operate the system," he adds. "The DME-32's audio quality is excellent. Its components—algorithms, D/A's, A/D's—are essentially on par with Yamaha's professional mixing console. Having all of this processing power within a four space device was a real help, instead of having racks of analog gear."

The Cadet Mess Hall is configured like an enormous wheel with six dining wings radiating from a central area, and can seat nearly 4,000 Cadets at one time.

Another key design element was a custom vertical line array based on Bose FreeSpace® 3 satellite speakers, and the use of Bose Acoustimass bass modules for low end, with 31 vertical arrays producing a hemi-disk shaped coverage pattern. Altel also installed a Yamaha 01V digital mixing console, incorporating 12 mic inputs to accommodate multiple instruments and vocals.

"The 01V was selected because of its ability to recall presets and its audio quality," says Jensen. "Many of the events are repetitive, and it's convenient to be able to recall different MIDI presets on the 01V directly from the touchscreens. For example, we have a preset for the choir loft which handles the hardwired mic inputs that run back to the control room, and another for a dais when there are several speakers or a guest lecturer. When different groups come to perform, we just save the preset. That provides a good starting point when that group comes back.

The Yamaha DME-32 is used for all system processing, with six presets configured to accommodate event needs. Presets are selectable on Crestron touchscreens, which also provide the ability to adjust levels, turn on the system, activate CD, DVD, or cassette players.

A shareware program called MIDI-OX ensures that correct control strings are sent from the Crestron unit to the 01V. There was a slight advantage to doing it via MIDI because we were able to monitor whether or not the proper control strings would be spit out."

Noted music producer Phil Ramone was contacted by West Point to provide input to ensure the musicality of the system, including some microphone selections. Audio-Technica AT4033a/SM and AT4055 were chosen for the choir loft, with six channels of Shure wireless units for general use. Hardwired microphones plug into a stage box, which also provides line level outs that feed self-powered monitors.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Jensen rates the job as "…a solid 9 1/2. When we were initiating the system, we played music—both rock and classical—and there were times that you could have sworn you were listening to a system in somebody's living room. The system brought almost a high fidelity level of sound quality into a space that had been extremely 'audio unfriendly.'"

For more information on the DME32, visit Yamaha at the 113th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention, Los Angeles Convention Center, Booth 1401; write Yamaha Corporation of America, Commercial Audio Systems Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com/proaudio.