The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage is a 538 seat architectural landmark at Santa Monica College. It is fully loaded with a professionally sized stage where road shows, music, theater, dance, lectures and multimedia performances are presented. Designed by Renzo Zecchetto with opera by the sea in mind, the auditorium excels with acoustic musical performances, however speech intelligibility issues developed as the program expanded to over 100 events per year.
After conducting an evaluation in 2017, Kirkegaard was retained to design a new audio system to improve clarity and intelligibility. Due to its landmark status, there were very specific restrictions for meeting Division of State Architect requirements. Compared to the existing, all new equipment had to be identical or smaller in dimensions, weight and quantity. Adding, moving, or changing equipment locations, electrical service, or walls/ceilings was forbidden.
Given the room's complex geometry, extensive modeling was performed to analyze the single center line-array and fill loudspeaker selections. An existing, unused console from another campus venue was repurposed and associated stage boxes, effects and source components were added to keep the project within its tight budget.
