Newbury's three-storey Grandstand - designed by Foster & Partners and built at a cost of £9 million - is divided into a five-zone audio configuration - one for each floor (including the betting hall, viewing galleries, 600-seat restaurant and conference areas), as well as a general circulation area. The fifth is designated for outside, where maximum speech intelligibility has to be delivered for a balcony audience of 700, and a further 2,500 on the stand steps. But when budget cutbacks forced audio systems engineer Robin Dibble to dispense with the auxiliary under-balcony enclosures, he turned to Community R2s and R0.5s, mounted high up on the new grandstand. "The remit was to provide front coverage and onto the lower part of the steps," he explained. "This is a very exposed stand which catches all the wind and rain, so it was vital we opted for both a dependable and weather-resistant system."
His design was based around a combination of 60° x 60° dispersion Community R0.5 for the near field, and for the 75m long throw, he selected the asymmetrical dispersion characteristics of the R2-474. Three enclosures - located at left, centre and right of the grandstand - point forward in a cluster, with rear-facing R0.5s. Two further R0.5s infill to create an even coverage.
Robin Dibble first discovered Community enclosures many years ago - introduced by his father Ken, the eminent acoustics consultant. "I thought they were superb - nothing else delivers the quality and value for money. With the R Series, speech intelligibility is delivered over the vocal band with an incredible presence, and at exceptional quality."
