Extensively remodeled in 1996, Dorchester County took the opportunity to revise all of the schools communications systems to be easier to use and to reflect the growing student interest in staging high-quality productions. Carolina Sound was there with a new public-address system for the gym, a new intercom system serving 208 rooms throughout the school, and a high-tech sound system for the auditorium.

Auditorium

The auditorium features Frazier loudspeakers arrayed in a computer-designed cluster to provide even, clear coverage throughout the house. On each side of the stage are custom multi-connector panels which allow the connections of microphones, line-level sources, monitor speakers and intercom headsets that allow the stage managers to communicate with the sound booth. The sound booth is the heart of the system, featuring a Yamaha 16 channel mixer and a custom Middle Atlantic equipment rack housing Ashly equalizers, Furman power conditioning, Shure wireless microphones, QSC power amplifiers, Symetrix compressors, Telex intercoms, and Williams hearing assistance. One particularly interesting feature of this system is the multi-pin connector in the floor of the building. In combination with a custom snake, it allows the students to take the mixing console out into the audience, make all of their settings where the audience would be listening, and then re-locate the console back to the sound booth where it is protected and out of the way.

Gym

For the gym, Summerville demanded a system that was easy to use and did not require student access to the equipment rack. Carolina Sound responded with a TOA mixer/amplifier, Shure equalizer/feedback controller, Shure wired and wireless mics, and a locking equipment rack. Sound is provided by the Soundsphere speaker, which is well known for its excellent performance in highly reverberant rooms like gymnasiums and warehouses.

Intercom