Fort Scott school ups its game with Ashly
- Details
The new gym obviously needed a new sound reinforcement system, but the existing gym and a second-floor weight room did as well. Audio/video integration firm Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) designed and installed a combined system that handles all three spaces. Because TEC's Joplin, Missouri headquarters is two-and-a-half hours round trip from Fort Scott, TEC AV project manager Nate Pugh called on the 24/7 reliability of Ashly Audio nX-Series multi-mode amplifiers to minimize the need for service calls.
"The existing gym had four ancient-looking loudspeakers in metal cages positioned in each corner of the room," explained Pugh. "They all aimed at centre court, and an equally-ancient powered mixer drove them all. It probably wasn't ideal when it went in, and all the time between then and now certainly didn't help. Volleyball and basketball are huge at Fort Scott, and they regularly bring 750 people in for games. There's a regional tournament coming up in a few weeks that's expected to draw 2,000 people."
To keep runs short, Pugh located each of three Ashly amps in three separate closets, each close to the loudspeakers it drives. A two-channel Ashly nX4002 delivers 400 watts per channel to 70V Community CS-Series distributed ceiling speakers in the weight room, whereas a beefier two-channel Ashly nX8002 delivers 800 watts per channel to a pair of low-impedance Community IP8 loudspeakers in the new gym.
Finally, a four-channel Ashly nX8004 delivers 800 watts per channel to eight low-impedance Community V2-Series loudspeakers and eight 70V Community CS-Series loudspeakers for fill in the existing gym. Like all the multi-mode amplifiers in the Ashly nX-Series, each channel in the nX8004 can be set to drive 2Ohm, 4Ohm, 8Ohm or 70V loudspeakers using simple rear panel DIP switches.
"We've been using Ashly gear for years now, and it never disappoints," Pugh said. "Nothing was specified in this job, so I was free to design in Ashly, knowing that Fort Scott High School would have the system on pretty much all day, every day."
(Jim Evans)
