The school's football stadium, in its current location since the 1950s, was rechristened W.L. Varner Stadium, in honour of its favourite son. Following a fire last year, the 5000-seat venue underwent extensive renovation, and now boasts a new press box, full-length bleacher seating and a sound system featuring weather-resistant R-Series Community professional loudspeakers.
Woodruff's audio supervisor Brad Phillips, who handled most of the project himself, explains that the fire was something of a mixed blessing. "Since the fire had completely destroyed the stadium's sound system, we were at liberty to design a whole new system from scratch," he says. "We were already familiar with Community Loudspeakers, since the old system had consisted of a combination of R2 and R.5 speakers. We liked the sound, quality and weather resistance of the R-Series, so when we decided on a new point-source system, we knew we wanted to stick with Community."
One of the biggest challenges facing Phillips was the project's tight schedule. "The fire occurred at the end of May, and we were scheduled to host a jamboree in early August with five visiting teams from across the upstate South Carolina area, so we had little choice but to get the job done fast," he says.
Phillips contacted Community's Technical Assistance Group, the TAG Team, who worked with him to map out the stadium's layout and determine the optimal coverage. Ultimately the school decided on a pair of R6-51 systems for long-throw coverage, augmented by two R2-694Z systems for short-throw coverage of the end zones and front row seating areas.
"That led to our second challenge - mounting those big R6 loudspeakers," says Phillips. A custom steel bracket system from Easley, SC-based EDS Lighting made quick work of mounting the speakers to the stadium's scoreboard. The system is powered by QSC RMX and PLX series amplification, with a dbx Driverack providing DSP. A Soundcraft EPM8 mixing console and Sennheiser microphones and wireless systems complete the package.
Reaction from fans and officials has been overwhelmingly positive. "The first day we fired up the system, our superintendent, Dr. Rallie Liston, told us how thrilled he was with the clarity and the coverage," says Phillips. "I even had complete strangers come up to me and tell me how clear the sound was. It's been just great for our kids and our community."
(Jim Evans)
