Mike Hedden, of Danley Sound Labs, explains that he initially demonstrated theDanley Sound Labs system, which is manufactured in Gainesville, Georgia,after a friend who works at the Falcons' facility told him that the team wasrenting equipment to simulate crowd noise during practice. "The old systemwas cumbersome and time consuming to setup but most importantly wasn'tsupplying enough 'oomph' to simulate the sound of a crowd of 72,000 people,"relates Hedden.
After setting up two Danley SH-50 full-range cabinets, each paired with aTH-115 subwoofer, Hedden says: "I told head coach Jim Mora, the beautyof what we brought is that we can leave it in the end zone and you don'tneed to take two stacks to the sidelines and run hundreds of feet of cableand shoot the energy across the field. With the old system they could onlyeffectively cover from about the goal line to the 10- or 15-yard. With oursystem we can cover out to about the 35- or 40-yard line from the end zone,so they have a lot more room to work their drills.
"Part of what makes the Danley products unique isthat the efficiency of the loudspeakers is so high that it doesn't take alot of power to make them work," he says. "The Falcons purchased a 5kVA,home-type, portable generator and put the system on a wagon and tow it witha John Deere Gator, so now they've got sound wherever it is required on theentire complex including the indoor practice facility."
Assistant equipment manager for the Falcons, Jimmy Luck says: "With thehelp of Mike and Danley Sound Labs we were able to create a portable crowdnoise system that really works. The portability of the system allows us tosimulate crowd noise anywhere anytime and at a moments notice. The trailersystem that we developed has and will continue to save me hours a day ofset-up and breakdown."
Head coach Jim Mora says: "The new system is awesome! I want to see howwe can have this system at the Georgia Dome as our team runs onto thefield."
The Danley SH-50, which offers a power rating of 1,600W with an SPL of132dB, and the TH-115, which is rated at 2,000W with a maximum SPL of 136dB,are so powerful, says Hedden, that, during the initial demonstration, thesystem could be heard in the administrative offices at the far end of thebuilding, nearly 600 feet away. "When we fired up the system, Rich McKay,the general manager, got on the phone to the guy underneath him in theweight training room and asked him to turn the sound system down!"
According to Hedden, the system is used for more than just recreating crowdnoise. "Because the SH-50s and the TH-115s sound so good, Coach Mora alsouses them to play high-energy music to pump the players up. The Falcons usethe system to play stuff outdoors every day. And if they have a game comingup at the Dome they use it for crowd noise every time."
(Chris Henry)
