Jack Wrightson, a WJHW partner, immediately recommended that the Red Sox contact EAW, located about 50 miles southwest of Boston in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. "I told them that there was a local manufacturer with excellent product and a long history of successful ballpark installations," commented Wrightson. "I knew that EAW would be willing to work with the Red Sox and that the resulting collaboration would result in improved sound quality."
With a large number of Red Sox fans on staff, EAW gladly agreed to consult on system design and configuration. Boston Light and Sound, a long-time and experienced EAW installation team, completed the final system installation and set-up. As is often the case for projects in historical venues, speaker placements were extremely limited, as was installation and alignment time. Consequently, to cover the main grandstand and field box seating areas, it was decided that the main system should be placed in an already existing position located at field level in the centrefield wall - the very same location, in fact, that housed the original Fenway sound system.
The centrefield main cluster comprises two KF910s and two KF913s for high frequency elements, eight KF920s for mids and a 3x3 cluster of nine KF930s to supply the lows. To complete the system, three MQ and one MK series loudspeakers were employed to cover the outfield and Green Monster seating areas that could not be covered from the main cluster in its centrefield wall location. From positions on a tower in centrefield, one MQV2364 and one MQ2343 are used to cover the centre and right field seating areas, while another MQV2364 and an MK2194 cover the new Green Monster seating.
Four EAW MX8750 close-coupled processors provide processing for the main cluster, as well as for the supplemental outfield systems. Final system commissioning utilized SIA SmaartLive to measure delay times for system alignment and to provide the frequency response data used during final tuning and voicing.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
