The first new public high school to open in 50 years in Lethbridge, Alberta, Chinook High School has a strong focus on the arts while also emphasizing academic achievement.

Fitted with a state-of-the-art theater facility, the school offers instruction and learning in fine arts, which include choir and instrumental music, art, drama and dance. To ensure students were getting the best experience possible in the space, school planners provided a high-end multimedia center in the theater with Crestron’s DigitalMedia technology at its core.

“Our media center had to be multi-purpose to accommodate all curricular areas, not just the fine arts, as a means to obtain funding approval for the construction,” says John Percevault, director of technology for Lethbridge School District #51.  “We immediately decided that it would be a high-definition 1080p multi-media enabled theater providing HD videoconferencing, HD data projection, HD cable TV, and HD Blu-ray playback on to three rear projectors and two front facing projectors.”

Percevault and his team issued the integration project to local vendor, Apogee, after determining that the theater should have traditional sound lighting solutions to be found in theaters of similar size, but with the added benefit of an audio extension for amplified sound. Because multiple HDMI inputs at 1080p is the mandatory requirement over large distances within a high school in Canada, the district also wanted to seamlessly distribute HD audio and video from various sources to a variety of displays.

“We worked closely with our Maintenance Director and building contractor to ensure that resources were aligned during construction to enable the proper installation of all technologies,” Percevault says. “Our purchasing department ensured inter-provincial purchasing compliance through the RFI and RFP processes.”

With Apogee integrating a combination of Yamaha sound technologies and Leviton lighting, the planners called on TLD Computers and Epson Canada to provide HD data projectors for the stage, Polycom Canada and Sound Structure for the components to build its videoconferencing system, and Crestron Canada—with the aid of Sharps Audio Visual as the integrator—for the implementation of matrix switching, control and touch panels with the required custom programming.

“All vendors contributed professional resources to this custom build—Crestron being the vital technology linking all of the applications together via the HDMI matrix, controller and touch

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