Renovations revamp auditoriums with thumping electronics

UA Media technician Michael Ureña is psyched about the changes, particularly the new sound system installed last summer in the Social Sciences building auditorium.

"The room can thump. The room has bass," Ureña said.

Facilities Project Manager John Adams said the auditorium is a good example of the types of changes students will see in the future, as old furniture, fixtures and other equipment are phased out to make room for more up-to-date facilities.

Renovations began in January 1996 in the Harvill Building during the first phase of a five year project, Adams said.

He said the University of Arizona provost allocated $2 million a year to renovate about 35 classrooms in as many as five buildings at a time. All told, the project will cost about $10 million.

Renovations to 34 rooms in the Modern Languages building, the project's year-long third phase, began Aug. 18 and are scheduled for completion next August.

Adams said those rooms, especially the Modern Languages auditorium, are in dire need of improvement.

"The seats are terrible, the floor is terrible and the curtains are torn and burnt," he said.

The plan's halfway mark was reached in August with the Social Sciences building renovations - including the thumping sound system.

Ureña said the $130,000 audio/visual electronic media system installed in the auditorium has gotten the most attention..

The system was presented to professors and department heads earlier in the year, and was an instant hit, Ureña said.

He said a computer model was used to figure the ideal placement of sound absorbing materials to provide better acoustics for the $16,000 theater-style sound system.

According to Ureña, Community speakers are hooked up to Crown amplifiers and controlled by a Mackey mixer and a Behringer Ultra-curve sound processor. Of course, only Ureña and select few techheads actually understand how to use a "Behringer Ultra-curve s ound processor."

He said the sound system's full capabilities will most likely never be used in a classroom situation.

Three projectors suspended from the ceiling cast images on a new 15-foot by 22- foot screen. Data from an instructor's computer can be projected onto the high-resolution screen along with images from videotapes, laserdiscs and a device known as the Elmo Visual Presenter.

According to Ureña, a device like the "Elmo," which resembles an overhead projector, was used during the O.J. Simpson trial to present evidence to the court.

"The bloody gloves were shown on one of these babies," he said.

Adams said controls for the room's electronics are all centrally located, so an instructor need not move around the room to conduct an electronically connected class.

Biochemistry professor Michael Wells said the changes made to the Social Sciences auditorium were nothing like the university has seen before.

"Everything was terrible about it before," he said after one of his 3 p.m. Wednesday lectures.

"It was a horrible place to lecture," he added.

Ureña said the Modern Languages auditorium is next on the list. It will receive a $90,000 electronic face-lift, but will have to wait until after the Spring 1998 semester.

"It's too big to do over the (Christmas) break," he said.

Wells demonstrated some of the visual capabilities by projecting a rotating molecular model of a section of DNA from the system's computer.

Besides graphic models, Wells said notes from his lectures are projected during class and they can be saved and downloaded onto his webpage.

Ureña called this capability an innovation over the non-technological methods of visual presentation, such as overhead projectors and chalkboards.

"Before," he said, "all this great knowledge would turn to chalk dust at the end of each day."

Ureña said there are plans to upgrade other rooms with similar electronic equipment within one year.