Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, IN
Project Details
3,800 Seat Room
LED video display design and installation
Clark designs, specifies, and integrates the new central focus of the school’s 3,800-seat auditorium
It’s no surprise that Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU), the Christian university of the Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana will graduate plenty of ministry majors. However, it’s also a highly rated science academy, ranked as the number-one nursing school in the state, and offers a robust information-technology degree program. In fact, the school often handles much of its own AV and IT systems design and integration needs, with two full teams of technical specialists on staff, one for its live-event AV and IT needs and one for classroom-technology applications. So when an institution like IWU does partner with an outside AV/IT vendor, that company had better be the best.
“It does say a lot about Clark Productions that we’ve chosen to work with them,” says Phil Huber, the Director of Sound, Light & Media at IWU. “We’ve done a number of projects together and they’ve done everything from handling entire projects to being the consultant and supplier for design assistance and equipment solutions on projects that we complete in-house. The term ‘partner’ gets tossed around a lot, but for us, Clark has truly been a partner. We can’t say enough about them.”
On The Big Screen
That was evident earlier this year when Clark designed, specified, and installed a new LED video wall in IWU’s 3,800-seat Chapel Auditorium, one of the largest theaters in the Midwest — it can literally hold the university’s entire on-campus student enrollment — and designed to attract major events such as touring music artists, live events, and conventions. At 20 x 11.6 feet, with a high resolution of 2.6 mm, the LED video wall is installed in a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio and attached to three one-ton Stagemaker chain hoists coupled with a Motion Labs motor-control system that allows it to be used as both as the focus of attention for lectures and demonstrations or as a scenic element for Chapel programs and other productions. The LED wall, it’s Novastar MCTRL-4K LED display controller, and the Barco Image Pro II processor that Clark installed and integrated have essentially superseded the four projectors that had installed in the auditorium, providing a brighter and sharper image for all applications in the venue.
“The processing and control equipment we specified and installed was more powerful than necessarily needed by this video wall, but we wanted to provide IWU with the headroom and flexibility to be able to expand the wall or change its configuration down the road if they wanted to,” explains Brian Morrison, Business Development for Clark.
Morrison says the relationship with IWU has developed over the course of more than a year, after they met at a trade expo in 2019, and reflects the kind of interaction Clark has with its clients. “We are first and foremost a resource for them,” he says. “That can range from some basic consulting to entire projects done start to finish. For instance, after the video wall project was completed, we most recently helped guide them as they were in the process of choosing a new lighting console. They have a substantial amount of technical capability in-house and were able to integrate that themselves. But we’re always there for them to help at any level they need us for.”
Huber says the school appreciates the partnership. “Clark was instrumental in helping us choose the right components for this project, for making sure it was installed and integrated effectively, and for assuring us that we got the most cost-effective price for the technology,” he says. “In fact, we placed the order in February but then between the onset of Covid-19 and other things that interrupted global supply chains, we weren’t able to install the video wall until late June. But Clark stayed on the case and keeping us informed.”
Since the video wall was put in and commissioned, the response at the school has been “overwhelmingly positive,” says Huber. “It’s been a huge step forward for us, and one more great project we’ve done with Clark.”