Held in Cleveland's expansive International Exposition (I-X) Centre, the event included unprecedented access to the Hall of Famers through one-on-one photo opportunities for fans, instructional drills on a 100-yard indoor football field, engaging games and activities, plus roundtable talks. There was a lot going on and, to ensure the capacity crowd could hear everything clearly, a sizeable sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio was deployed.
Cleveland based Hughie's Event Production Services, which provides live sound, staging, lighting, and video services for the special events market, was contracted to provide sound for Fan Fest. Rick Kish, the company's production consultant, along with audio engineer Dave Taybi, were charged with delivering a sound reinforcement setup capable of handling the crowd. Kish described the project and his decision for utilizing Aero 12A and Aero 40A loudspeakers from D.A.S. Audio's Aero Series 2 product line.
"The I-X Centre is a very large facility," explained Kish. "The Fan Fest took place throughout the facility's Main Entrance and Walk Through Experience areas. Audience members could walk through this area while videos of previously recorded Hall of Fame Induction Speeches took place. The goal was to evenly cover the area with museum level speech intelligibility and then add in crowd noise-simulating the experience of entering a stadium football field as they passed through."
In order to provide even coverage throughout, Kish, Taybi, and the Hughie's Event Production Services crew elected to fly forty D.A.S. Audio Aero 12A powered two-way, mid-high line array modules. These were arranged in eight loudspeaker clusters evenly dispersed throughout the area, with five elements to each hang. This setup was augmented by a single cluster of D.A.S. Aero 40A powered, three-way line array elements-with five enclosures in this group.
When queried about those attributes that made the D.A.S. Audio Aero Series 2 loudspeakers the right choice for the Fan Fest project, Kish offered the following. "This job requires a high level of speech intelligibility," Kish reports. "It was absolutely critical that the audience be able to clearly hear what the various football Hall of Famers were discussing. Equally important, the sound coverage had to be consistent throughout the entire area. Without this, dead zones would interfere with the fans' ability to hear clearly. These two qualities are what sets D.A.S. Audio apart from many competing loudspeaker systems."
In addition to the sound quality and features found in the Aero Series 2 loudspeakers, Kish also offered some very positive comments in regard to D.A.S. Audio's customer and technical support services. "In a nutshell, D.A.S. Audio's support services are outstanding," he said. "Carlos Henao and Robert Almodovar not only helped us plan and design the system for this event, they also came out to make certain that everything was working flawlessly. It simply doesn't get better than that."
At the end of the weekend, the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Fan Fest proved to be a resounding success. "It really couldn't have gone much better," states Kish. "We were extremely pleased with the system and how well it performed. Speech intelligibility was excellent and the quality of 'Arena Anthem' music also sounded great as it played between the various speeches.
(Jim Evans)
