Berkeley Preparatory School, a highly ranked pre-K to grade 12 day school in Tampa, has a jam-packed schedule of activities—all of which require wireless audio solutions—for its 1,400-plus students. The state-of-the-art school has long used Sennheiser G3 wireless for its audio needs, but recently, productions technical director Christopher Cook had been looking for a new solution to meet RF challenges while enabling a fully networked solution across the sprawling campus. With support from Beamworks, Inc., Berkeley Prep rolled out 40 channels of Sennheiser’s EW-DX wireless system, the newest and most robust offering from the Evolution Wireless Digital family of products.
In Control
Given the nature of Cook’s role, he does not have room for equipment failure or troubleshooting, and must always be prepared for the unexpected. “If something goes down, I need a fast repair,” he said. A longstanding Sennheiser user—Cook was reliant on the quality of the G3 wireless system for many years, and now subsequently the EW-DX. He said, “Luckily, things don’t go wrong often with Sennheiser.”
As an AV team of one, Cook needed a fully networked solution that could be managed offsite. He explained, “Our campus is 80 acres, so I’m not able to walk from room to room; I have to hop on the golf cart. Now I just go on the computer, pop on Control Cockpit, and make sure everything is good. We are networking all audio consoles.” Sennheiser EW-DX’s can be managed via Control Cockpit so Cook can oversee, coordinate, and troubleshoot wireless operations from his laptop. As Berkeley Prep’s wireless setup spans three black box theaters across the elementary, middle, and upper school divisions; a main stage 820 seat theater; a recital space; and a brand-new chapel, being able to manage all of these spaces and more from a centralized hub was a key consideration in their wireless audio decision.
Cook worked closely with Berkeley Prep’s trusted partners at Beamworks to plan, purchase, and roll out the EW-DX system across campus. Drew McMullian, operations manager at Beamworks said, “Getting everything connected and networked has been incredible. They built a beautiful new chapel recently, and the AV room is up a spiral staircase, so it is not accessible if you need to get there quickly.” He continued, “Being able to control the wireless from the Control Cockpit software is a necessity for Cook. All of this, with the flexibility to use any Neumann or Sennheiser capsules to outfit the church choir, made this a spot-on setup for Berkeley Prep.”
With so many daily activities across campus that require wireless audio both indoors and out, navigating air traffic and buzzy Downtown Tampa to dodge dropouts and interference can feel like an obstacle course. Berkeley Prep needed a wireless system that could handle the crowded RF spectrum while minimizing the legwork. EW-DX offers the lowest latency on the market (1.9ms) and eliminates the need for frequency calculation thanks to its equidistant frequency spacing which does not pollute available spectrum with intermodulation.
[On Higher Ed Tech: Sennheiser]
The recent installation of EW-DX across Berkeley Prep’s campus was completed at a crucial make-or-break-it point. The rollout was right in time for technical week, or tech week, for the school’s highly anticipated production of Mean Girls. They were the first school in Tampa to adapt the popular musical, and the wireless system rose to the challenge, “I used 24 channels of EW-DX, and it was immediately night and day [from our previous system]. The sound quality was more natural, the intelligibility was better—they were just so clean,” said Cook. “I didn’t change my mic technique; it was just the units. I got a lot of great comments about how natural the production sounds.”
Cook sees that the future is bright for EW-DX on campus, with opportunities to improve audio in more places: “I’m really excited to eventually merge out into the athletic fields. For now, whenever someone sings the national anthem, we bring out the EW-DX. Eventually I want each venue to have EW-DX managed through Control Cockpit. I look forward to expanding with the EW-DX line and growing with it.”
Beyond the sound quality, ease of use and centrally networked setup, the EW-DX upgrade at Berkeley Prep has given Cook a distinct return on investment that most education industry AV and IT professionals could benefit from. He explained, “Anything that takes away stress or provides you with more time back in your workday is huge. All we have as people is our time, so anything to give you more of it is worth the investment.”
