The system was officially commissioned just ahead of the Aggies' fall season, specified and designed by Richmond, Virginia's Anthony James Partners and installed and integrated by Salt Lake City-based Poll Sound, an L-Acoustics certified provider, systems integration.
A total of 24 K2 modules are split between a left and a right line-array hang. In addition, seven L-Acoustics X12 high-performance coaxial speakers are installed underneath the new scoreboard, which is atop a five-story end-zone building, filling the acoustical "shadow" area directly in front of it, while an eighth X12 enclosure performs a similar function underneath the press box. Nine L-Acoustics LA8 amplified controllers, along with one LA4X, power and process the entire system.
"The university was adamant about the sound being highly intelligible," says Larry Lucas, director of audio engineering at Anthony James Partners Consulting, which surveyed the Aggie's home field using L-Acoustics' Soundvision 3.0 software and then specified the K2 system components based on its predictions. "They were looking for high-fidelity sound from a line array system loud enough to fill the stadium. The K2 was the perfect solution to deliver that."
Lucas guided the project through its bid stage, an environment in which performance is often pitted against cost on an uneven playing field. However, Lucas felt completely confident in recommending the K2 system. "L-Acoustics isn't the least-expensive option on the market, but I truly believe that if the client listens to the system, they'll hear that they're getting their money's worth. It stands on its own."
Underscoring that is the fact that not only did the K2 deliver the speech intelligibility demanded of it, but it also projected so well that it was able to cover the south end of the stadium, where the concessions are located, without the need for delay reinforcement. That alone represented a substantial savings, Lucas notes.
Deward Timothy, owner and president of Poll Sound, the AV systems integrator charged with installing the K2 system, points out another way that it saved Utah State money. "The K2 system goes down to 35Hz on its own and does not need subwoofers," he says, noting how well the K2 enclosures handle the low frequencies that music at contemporary sports venues requires. "The system has the capacity to handle a lot of low frequency - to the point that it can rattle the bleachers," he says.
But Timothy was also pleased with the ease with which the K2 arrays could be installed. "We could set the angles on the ground, based on what Soundvision predicted, and then as we pulled the boxes up, it conformed to those angles perfectly," he says. "It's an all-round great sound system."
(Jim Evans)
