The Royal Masonic is one of the oldest schools for girls in the country, founded in 1788. The school started with 15 pupils in East London and moved twice within London until it finally settled in the magnificent grounds of Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire in 1934, where the school was purpose built within 315 acres. The school became an open fee-paying school in 1978.
Having met Clarity at the BETT Show in 2017, The Royal Masonic School tasked Clarity with updating the Preparatory School’s sound and theatrical lighting system in the school hall at Cadogan House.
Clarity began by installing two six-metre long lighting bars, one mounted on each side wall. On the bars were fitted three high brightness LED Par wash lanterns that can be used not only for the stage but also to flood the walls, ceiling and floor with an almost infinite array of colour for a tremendous effect. Theatrical Fresnel and Profile lanterns were installed that include smooth dimming and a motorized zoom lens, and a Profile with a gate into which they can place image templates called gobos. When the light shines through the gobo it projects the design from the template onto a surface.
A remote wall-mounted control panel was installed that allows simple lighting ‘scenes’ to be set at the touch of a button which is ideal for day-to-day use.
The school had an existing sound system that they were unhappy with so Clarity considerably modified the system. Four new high-quality Yamaha loudspeakers were supplied for the main hall with two smaller speakers fitted for the balcony. Keeping their existing equipment cabinet, Clarity suggested the addition of a CD/media player that includes a USB slot plus Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
One final modification to make the sound and lighting systems convenient and easy to use, was the ability to operate them wirelessly via an iPad. Clarity can give the option of different levels of control depending on the requirements of the user with various layouts easily selected and displayed on the iPad.
To put that final touch on the installation the iPad display has the school name and logo included.
