Ponsonby Primary School: one-button audio and video for the school gymnasium

Project snapshot

• Client: Ponsonby Primary School
• Location: Ponsonby, Auckland
• Sector: Education
• Scope: New audio and visual system for the school gymnasium, with one-touch user control

The venue

A primary school gymnasium is never just a gym. At Ponsonby Primary it doubles as the assembly hall, the venue for fundraisers and productions, and a large teaching space for learning programmes. The school wanted a single system that could handle all of those uses, and that any teacher could operate.

The brief

Install a new audio and visual system in the gymnasium that caters for presentations, fundraiser events and learning programmes. The overriding requirement: control had to be as simple as possible.

What we installed

• Two Martin Audio 15-inch loudspeakers, mounted high and aimed to cover the whole hall. Fifteen-inch boxes give a school hall the headroom for music and film sound without straining, and Martin Audio's pattern control keeps speech clear in a reflective gym.
• A 200-inch motorised projector screen, large enough for a full hall to see from the back.
• A long-throw Panasonic commercial installation projector, positioned out of harm's way and bright enough for a hall that cannot always be blacked out.
• A BSS Contrio wall control panel as the single point of control for the whole system.

One button

The wall panel is the heart of the project. A teacher walks in, selects the source they want to hear, and the panel lowers the screen and turns on the projector with a single press. There is no rack to open, no remote controls to hunt for and no sequence of steps to remember. The audio tuning, level limits and switching all sit behind the panel, configured by us and locked away from accidental changes.

Built for a school

Equipment in a gym has to survive stray balls and enthusiastic children. Loudspeakers and the projector are mounted high, the screen retracts when not in use, and the control panel is the only user-facing part of the system.

Our role

Design and installation of the audio visual system and the user control.

Upgrading a school hall?

We work with schools across Auckland on hall and assembly sound, projection and paging, always with the "any teacher can run it" test in mind. See our AV installation service, browse installation speakers, or request a free site survey.