RAO Theater Renovation

CHALLENGE:

In 1998, the college built a huge new building for the arts as a part of that whole master plan that year. They began doing theater productions, teaching classes but over the years he noticed was that there were some design flaws, things that we wouldn’t have thought of in the 90s, but are extremely important now.  The theater industry started making the shift to digital and LED lighting and, we didn’t have the money to keep it up to date.

SOLUTION:

We were able to not only fix everything that was flawed, but really bring the theater up to date to what is going on in the performing arts industry today. Something as simple as adding a sliding window in the soundproof booth made a huge impact on the program, so that the person who was doing sound could actually hear what was going on on stage. The largest impact was making the switch to digital sound. Until Dr. Rao & Family and Stewart's Shops came through, we had only been able to make incremental improvements. With their help we were able to transform the theater into The RAO Theater we have today. Some of the improvements include

• 15 new LED lighting fixtures for the stage allow us to have essentially infinite colors without having to get up on a ladder
• The new 4k laser projector, movie sized screen, and the addition of audio/video hook ups allows the space to truly be multi-use.
•  With our new digital sound system, we have moved from a tangled mess of cables and instead have one little cable to manage. The sound in the space has improved for both the audience and the performers.

OUTCOME:

The renovations have allowed us to not only improve theater productions, but also give the campus a multi-use space. The RAO Theater can now double as an event space or a movie theater, and host everything from seminars to music performances. With the upgrades to the RAO Theater and the new program, we are now able to train students in live performance technology, audio, video, computer networking/programming, and more. We can now give students so many more of the tools they’ll need to succeed in the industry  

SEAT NAMING OPPORTUNITY