Sacred Heart University WSHU Radio Station + Public Safety

For the WSHU Public Radio Group, which is home to CT NPR public radio, SGA designed two full studios, four editing suites, and a large community room that can also be used as a performance studio. The design team selected Acentech to provided acoustics, audiovisual, telecommunications, and security systems design consulting for this project.

Acentech’s acoustics consultants provided advice and recommendations for the entire building, with special emphasis on the public safety command center conference room, WSHU studios, control rooms, the community room, and associated support spaces. Acentech’s design focused on studio room acoustics, sound isolation between the editing suites and studios as well as between public safety and WSHU, and HVAC noise and vibration control to help assure appropriate quiet background sound levels.

Our audiovisual consultants ensured the integration of audiovisual systems for the public safety command center and conference rooms as well as the WSHU’s broadcast suite that includes the control room, edit suites, and a full studio. Our telecommunications and Security System consultants designed a robust Gigabit structured cabling system to support smart building technology and a network-based security management system for the access control, video surveillance and emergency communications system.

The smart building technology on the Gigabit structured cabling system includes building management systems, energy management systems, lighting systems, fire life safety, access control, and emergency communication systems, utility meters, elevators, and generators. The access control system included an integrated wired and wireless locking system with integral card readers. The video surveillance system is designed to monitor video surveillance cameras for the new public safety and radio station as well as the sacred heart campus.

The unique duality of the building required the design team to focus on the acoustics and technology components to ensure the space was able to be used as intended. Together with the design team, we created a building that will produce live broadcasts, NPR content, and support the safety of all students on campus.