BRUNSWICK
Curtis Memorial Library is bringing theater sound to its meeting room after receiving a $15,000 grant to upgrade their technology.
Since opening its doors 16 years ago, the Morrell Meeting Room at the library has become the go-to place for public speakers, organizations and businesses — not to mention library programing and teen movie night.
The upgrade includes a new sound board, HD Blue Ray player and Dolby Atmos speakers capable of surround sound that will shake the artwork off the walls.
The new system was installed by Bill Wayman, owner of AV Systems of Bowdoin.
Digital librarian Mike Gorzka said the library is now one of only a few venues in the state equipped with overhead sound. Previously, there were only two speakers in the front of the room, occasionally making it difficult for people in the back to hear.
“If there’s a plane going over your head, you’ll hear it go right over — it’s really remarkable,” Gorzka said. “From what we had before, this is just so amazing — I can’t get over it.”
Gorzka said the library was showing “Avengers: Age of Ultron” for teen movie night and the night cleaning person on the other side of the meeting room door thought there was an earthquake.
It’s that sound reaching the back of the room that Joyce Schmidt, development associate at Curtis, says makes all the difference.
“We often fill this room with 140 people so it’s nice to be able to have that consistent sound,” Schmidt said, explaining that the Curtis crowd is pretty diverse in age and hearing abilities.
Schmidt said the last project in the Morrell room will be the blinds. Schmidt said the projector, made possible by a donor, is only a few years old and received an upgrade along with the sound system.
One of the other goals for the upgrade was to make the new technology more user friendly. Since the room is often in use both before and after hours, Schmidt said simplifying their electronics made sense.
Building Supervisor Melissa Hall handled a device the size of a television remote with which she could control the audio, Blue Ray and other elements of their system.
“This is the community’s room, so we want to make sure that the people use it,” Schmidt said.
dmcintire@timesrecord.com
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