A Stage Reborn: Manhasset's Most Ambitious Auditorium Overhaul in Nearly 90 Years

From a beloved 1936 little theatre to a Broadway-caliber venue — designed and integrated by Advance Sound Company — the Manhasset Secondary School auditorium emerges transformed and opens to a sold-out triumph

At the heart of Manhasset High School lies a historic auditorium that evokes the timeless grandeur of a classic Broadway theater — an elegant performance space rich with character, tradition, and artistic spirit. From the moment one enters, the room carries an unmistakable sense of occasion, where generations of students have stood beneath its lights to perform, discover confidence, and create lasting memories. I

That transformation was entrusted to Advance Sound Company, a professional theatrical systems design and integration firm with deep expertise in performing arts facilities. Working in close collaboration with the Manhasset school district, Advance Sound Company led the design, specification, and installation of every new technical system in the building — from the motorized rigging overhead to the broadcast suite at the back of the house. Their work has elevated the venue into a flexible, high-performance environment capable of supporting theater, music, assemblies, multimedia presentations, and community events alike. Intelligent theatrical systems now allow productions to shift seamlessly in mood, atmosphere, and focus — bringing professional-level creative tools into an educational setting.

What makes the Manhasset auditorium truly remarkable is the harmony between its storied past and forward-thinking future. Advance Sound Company's design philosophy honored that balance at every turn — preserving the architectural romance and elegance of the original 1936 house while quietly threading contemporary performance technology through its walls, ceiling, and stage. It is more than an auditorium — it is a living stage where history and innovation coexist, inspiring students to not only perform, but to experience the transformative power of the performing arts in an environment worthy of their talent and ambition.

When Manhasset Secondary School opened its doors in 1936, the community had reason to boast. The building's little theatre — seating 700, modest by any measure — was outfitted with what the local paper called the finest scenic and stage equipment money could buy. Nearly nine decades later, that same auditorium has undergone its most comprehensive transformation since the day it opened.

That 1936 boast, it turns out, has been renewed. Advance Sound Company's renovation touched every major system in the house — from the fly tower to the front-of-house broadcast suite — repositioning Manhasset's auditorium among the most technically advanced school performing arts facilities in the region. The project required not only deep technical expertise across rigging, lighting, audio, video, and acoustics, but also the rare ability to integrate those disciplines into a single coherent system that students and educators can operate with confidence.

The Ceiling Rises: 18 Feet of New Possibility

Perhaps no single element defines the transformation of the Manhasset High School auditorium more dramatically than what now exists overhead. Advance Sound Company's scope included the specification and integration of a fully motorized rigging system made possible by an extraordinary structural change: the stage house ceiling was raised 18 feet — unlocking a level of theatrical flexibility rarely found in a secondary school environment. This significant expansion was far more than a construction milestone; it fundamentally reimagined what the space could become, and Advance Sound Company designed the new rigging infrastructure to make the most of every inch of that new height.

"Our ceiling has been raised 18 feet and that was one of the most ambitious parts of this project. It allows us to motorize all of our battens, so that everything can be raised electronically. That includes battens that our lights, scenery and curtains are on — like a real Broadway stage."

— Dr. Joseph Owens, Manhasset Schools

With the increased height came Advance Sound Company's integration of a fully motorized rigging system, bringing Broadway-inspired functionality into the heart of the school's performing arts program. Battens supporting theatrical lighting, scenery, curtains, and soft goods can now be raised and lowered electronically with speed, precision, and ease. What was once a labor-intensive process dependent on manual rigging is now streamlined through intuitive control — a direct result of the thoughtful engineering Advance Sound Company brought to bear on the project.

The impact on theatrical design is profound. Directors and designers are no longer limited by the physical constraints of a traditional school stage; instead, they are empowered with the flexibility to think bigger, design more ambitiously, and create immersive scenic environments with remarkable efficiency. Full scenic elements can be flown into the performance space in moments — revealing complete environments, architectural pieces, drops, or dramatic visual moments with elegance and theatrical precision. A production can transition instantly from an intimate interior to a sweeping exterior landscape, while lighting positions and masking elements adapt just as fluidly to support the story being told.

Advance Sound Company also specified and sourced a beautifully curated package of professional theatrical soft goods to complete the rigging system: an opulent red velour main drape and valance that frame the stage with timeless elegance, black legs and borders for masking and visual composition, and a full white cyclorama that expands creative lighting possibilities exponentially. Together, these elements create a highly adaptable theatrical canvas where scenery, light, color, and movement work in harmony — giving students and educators access to a stage environment that encourages creativity without limitation.

Broadway-Standard Illumination

The renovated proscenium, with new front-of-house lighting positions and the Digital Projection E-Vision laser unit visible at upper right.

Advance Sound Company designed and installed a complete theatrical lighting system anchored by the ETC Eos Ion Xe20 control console and Chauvet Professional Ovation Series fixtures — a pairing chosen for its exceptional flexibility, creative freedom, and professional-level performance. The Ion Xe20 delivers sophisticated theatrical control with advanced cueing, effects, color management, and scalable networking capabilities, allowing the venue to seamlessly manage conventional fixtures, LEDs, moving lights, and architectural systems from a single intuitive platform. Advance Sound Company's integration of this console gives students and faculty engineers access to the same control platform used on professional Broadway and touring productions.

Complementing the control infrastructure, Advance Sound Company specified the Chauvet Professional Ovation Series as the fixture family of choice — a unified line engineered around a shared color platform that delivers beautiful consistency across front light, stage wash, scenic illumination, and cyclorama lighting. Fixtures including the Ovation E-910FC, P-56FC, B-565FC, and Cyc 1 FC work together harmoniously to create rich, immersive visual environments where whites, saturates, and nuanced color palettes remain balanced and cohesive throughout the performance space. This careful fixture selection reflects Advance Sound Company's commitment to systems that are not only technically excellent but artistically empowering for the designers who use them.

Together, these technologies — selected, designed, and integrated by Advance Sound Company — transform the auditorium into a dynamic creative environment where technical sophistication and artistic storytelling exist in perfect balance. From beautifully natural theatrical looks and vibrant concert aesthetics to immersive scenic environments and multimedia presentations, the system offers virtually limitless opportunities for creativity and expression. 

Studio-Quality Sound for Every Seat

Advance Sound Company designed the audio renovation as a complete signal chain — from microphones on performers, through the mixing console, out to a redesigned speaker system, and captured by a broadcast-quality recording suite. Every component was selected as part of a coherent, integrated system rather than assembled piecemeal, ensuring that each element performs in concert with the others.

For mixing, Advance Sound Company specified the Allen & Heath Avantis — a 64-channel digital console with a 96kHz audio engine that puts professional broadcast-quality mixing in the hands of student and faculty engineers. The Avantis occupies the tier just below Allen & Heath's flagship dLive system and is used in mid-scale touring, broadcast, and installed venue applications worldwide. Its selection reflects Advance Sound Company's philosophy of installing professional-tier equipment that educates as it performs.

Wireless microphone coverage is provided by Sennheiser EW-DX — a system Advance Sound Company selected for its next-generation digital performance in the demanding RF environment of a school theatre. Introduced in 2022, the EW-DX operates in Sennheiser's proprietary digital transmission protocol, offering enhanced frequency agility, lower latency, and superior RF density compared to analog predecessors. For a full musical production requiring 20 or more simultaneous wireless channels, the reliability of the EW-DX — and the expertise of Advance Sound Company in deploying it — is a meaningful advantage.

Advance Sound Company also redesigned the speaker system for even coverage throughout the house, positioning delays and fills to serve the balcony and side sections that the older system had struggled to reach. The result is consistent, intelligible audio in every seat — a fundamental goal of the firm's systems design approach.

Laser Projection and Full Broadcast Integration

For projection, Advance Sound Company specified and installed the Digital Projection E-Vision Laser series — a professional installation projector using red-laser illumination technology. The choice of a laser platform was deliberate: unlike lamp-based projectors that dim and shift color over thousands of hours, the E-Vision maintains consistent brightness and color fidelity across its operational life, with rated lifespans of 20,000 hours or more. 

Advance Sound Company integrated the projection system with a Blackmagic Design camera and broadcast suite — professional-grade production switchers, capture cards, and cameras widely used in live event production and broadcast. This integration was a hallmark of Advance Sound Company's holistic design approach: rather than treating audio, video, lighting, and rigging as separate systems, the firm engineered them to communicate and operate as a unified whole. The result allows the school to record performances in broadcast quality, stream events live, and project video content — a genuinely professional workflow now in student hands.