Villanova University, a private research university, is likely best known for its annual appearance in March Madness. As a result, the school’s prowess on the stage and in the rehearsal room, while strong, has been historically overshadowed by its Division I basketball team. That story, however, won’t be told for much longer now that the University’s creative community has found itself in a new, $60 million showstopper of a home—the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts.
The goal of the project was to construct a state-of-the-art performing arts center to support performances, creativity, engagement and exploration, enriching Villanova’s campus and enhancing educational opportunities. Diversified was selected as the AV systems solutions provider on this project for several reasons, including the company’s technological expertise and capability to deliver high complexity systems in the higher education and performing arts space.
The 85,000-square-foot campus hub boasts multiple professional-grade performance venues and support spaces within a single building to include a 400-seat proscenium theater, a 200-seat black-box theater and a 75-seat Performance Lab for more intimate and experimental productions, as well as classrooms, conference rooms, dance studio, multipurpose rooms and offices.
Diversified was able to provide much needed consultation with regards to live events, large venue audio and performance venue technology implementation with a solution that includes collaboration, unified communications, PA and live venue sound technologies. The video core of the system is a Crestron DM matrix switcher which interconnects most of the AV systems in the building. The proscenium theater features a Clair Brothers speaker system, Midas console, QSC QSys DSP, and Shure microphones. The building also utilizes a Clearcom intercom system for communication among the technical team throughout.
Despite many challenges with construction and the technology selected, Diversified was able to deliver a world class system for Villanova and now, students and audiences alike will benefit from the variety of performance opportunity such spaces and technologies can offer.
