"The stadium was built without consideration for a PA system," says Gary Matthews of Total Audio Video Systems (TAVS) in Sunrise, Florida, the company behind the stadium's new Community Professional audio system. "There were no existing conduit runs from the press box on the home side to the visitors' side of the field," he says. "There were also numerous sidewalks, out buildings and other underground utility conduits that would get in the way of any trenching required to provide for mounting loudspeakers on the visitors' side."
The solution was found in Community's R-Series loudspeakers. The R2-52Z long-throw, two-way system was mounted on the press box structure, effectively beaming the audio to the far side of the field. On the home side, a pair of R1 medium-throw two-way systems covered most of the seating, with a pair of R.25 compact 8-inch systems providing down-fill on the outer edges of the upper tier seating. The system is powered by Crest CKI Series amplifiers, with a Drive Rack 260 providing DSP.
"The school wanted the system for primarily athletic events, as well as safety assemblies, so it had to be versatile enough to clearly and intelligibly reproduce vocals but also sound good playing music during halftime and other events," says Matthews. "They were emphatic about wanting full-range music performance that didn't 'sound like it was coming out of a coffee can.' And the system needed to provide good coverage to both sides of the field."
(Jim Evans)
