"The sound was loud, but pretty much unintelligible," explains Mike Shetler of Atlanta-based VisionQuest Design and Production. "People in the stands couldn't really make out what was being said, but the school was getting plenty of complaints from the neighbours."
In fact, says Shetler, it ended up becoming a safety issue. "The night of their first home football game of 2007, they needed to evacuate the stadium due to a lightning storm, but the sound was so bad the crowd couldn't understand the announcement."
Shetler designed a new system utilising three Community R2-694Z three-way long-throw loudspeakers to cover the home stands, along with a single R2-52Z unit to cover the visitors' stands. Two R.5-66TZ two-way loudspeakers on either side of the press box provide sound to the stands beside the press box. A Rane RPM-26z processor is used for speaker processing and to create the different zones, and the system is powered by Face F1200TX amplification.
"The Community loudspeakers have made a huge difference," says Shetler. "They've given us the directional control to focus the sound onto the field, and cut down on the neighbours' complaints. They deliver terrific intelligibility, so the announcements come through loud and clear, and great musical performance as well. And the weather-resistant factor was another tremendous plus."
(Jim Evans)
