However, while the Alfred Newman Recital Hall on the USC campus has been
earning international recognition for the purity of its acoustics, the
280-seat facility's incandescent lighting system has been aging. That is,
until 4Wall Entertainment recently replaced it with an all-LED system that
featured house lighting from CHAUVET Professional's Ovation H-105WW LED
Fixtures.

"The university wanted to retrofit this hall with an LED solution to save
energy and save on the lamp changes," said Rafael Garcia, Senior Account
Executive at 4Wall. "Before we installed the new system, the school would
have to erect a scaffolding system to change out the house lamps and a man
lift to replace the tungsten par lamps onstage.  It was time consuming and
expensive."

A preferred dealer for USC that enjoys a strong relationship with the
university, 4Wall installed 15 of the Ovation H-105WW LED Fixtures. The
fixtures were positioned in three straight rows of five units each in the
black spaces between the three prominent white mason beams that run across
the width of the audience area ceiling. 

The COB LEDs of the Ovation fixtures deliver a bright, even warm white light
that not only illuminates, but also complements the intimate feel of the
hall's architecture. Convection cooled and featuring adjustable PWM, the new
house lights are silent and flicker free, making them well suited for the
recital hall application. 

"We chose the Ovations due to their great even spread, the extreme amount of
light output and great color temperature," said Garcia. "They dimmed great
and were exactly what we needed to replace the old house lights."

Garcia also used 17 LED wash fixtures to replace the tungsten pars that were
positioned above the stage and nine LED ellipsoidals to replace older
tungsten counterparts. All of the lighting was controlled via an Interactive
Technologies CueServer Express and CueTouch LCD touchscreen. 4Wall's system
installation team programmed the touchscreen with presets to allow scenes to
be changed easily on the fly.

"Our site foreman David Estrada deserves a lot of credit for the success of
this project as do our contacts at USC, Brandon Operchuck and Jeff de Caen.
It was a great team effort."

It was a team effort too back in 1999, when the Hancock Building Auditorium
(as the hall was then known) underwent a major remodeling aimed at achieving
acoustical perfection.  The facility, which opened in 1940, was literally
reshaped to improve its acoustics. It also had a motorized variable
acoustics system installed to optimize different types of musical
performances -- and new seats made with sound absorbing material were added.

Now with the installation of the new lighting system from 4Wall, the Alfred
Newman Recital Hall represents state-of-the-art achievement visually as well
as acoustically. The great composer, who worked primarily in the visual
media of film, would undoubtedly be pleased with the changes made to his
namesake facility on the USC campus.