Renovations to the Boddy Dodd Stadium audio/visual system began two years ago with the upgrade of the Stadium's 10-year-old video setup. Although most of the budget focused on the video system, Baker Audio was still charged with providing an audio system that could mirror the new scoreboard's quality. The company developed a JBL solution that included two arrays of four VLA601H and two VLA601 line array loudspeakers in the stadium scoreboard on either side of the video board.
The VLA series loudspeaker arrays cover approximately 80 percent of the stadium. There are four PD5212 boxes for down-fill in front of a Panasonic video board in the south end zone, and four PD764 loudspeakers used for side-fill. Baker Audio mounted the PD764 loudspeakers on custom mounts, which allowed them to rotate left to right on a yoke arm. The entire system is rounded off with an array of Harman Professional products--including Crown IT4000 amplifiers, a BSS BLU-32 Network I/O Expander, and a Soundcraft GB4 mixing console - all of which is configured with HiQnet System Architect.
"We knew that we would need something compact but powerful enough to cover the entire stadium," said Joe Schuch, owner of Baker Audio. "We also wanted something that would have name recognition; something that the administration at the stadium would be familiar with. In researching different loudspeakers, and having extensive experience with JBL, we knew that the VLA series would be able to handle most of it, and once we added the PD series on top of it, everyone was very happy with the power and clarity we got."
(Jim Evans)
