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Author Topic: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help  (Read 4142 times)

Noah D Mitchell

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2021, 01:35:40 PM »

The did a poor job on the first project… so let’s hire them again on the second.  Sounds completely logical to me.


Sounds like your typical committee/municipality/government job, unfortunately.
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Steve-White

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2021, 01:48:37 PM »


Sounds like your typical committee/municipality/government job, unfortunately.

Yep.  Any problem can be solved, if it fails simply pour more money into it until it works.  The boilerplate for our government.
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Mike Caldwell

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #22 on: May 29, 2021, 02:58:33 PM »

I'm not a pro here, but am an educator in a similar situation to yours.  We ended getting some community speakers that are pretty meh.  They do a mediocre job at play by play announcement for the home side and forget the away side.  It's bad.  Then, the dance team always wants it louder and the system can just not handle it.  I wish we would have contacted Danley or another big install name.  At this point we'll probably just be begging for another system in a few years time and then we've paid for two systems when we probably could have just paid for one the first time.

I'm With Doug on this.

Community makes speakers.. the R2 series that will cover the visitors side from the home side press box. Short of the R series subs none of the R series are designed to be stadium shaking full range speakers.
If someone tries to do that with them you will end up with broken speakers.

I mean stadium shaking as in low frequency, they have plenty of models that will get loud and at distance.

Post a couple pictures of the install.

Scott Hibbard

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #23 on: June 17, 2021, 05:26:46 PM »

Mike,

I have done a number of these designs and installs, and the design is really as important as the selected products.  The design should drive the product selection (not the other way around). 

As an example, the systems you listed many work quite well in a distributed system, but neither will have enough get-up-and go to cover 1,500 people in a football stadium at any appreciable levels.  Budget plays into it as well, as many have noted here. 

I've attached a few pics of a recent installation that probably comes close to your 1,500 seat high school stadium.  I used (4) Community R.5MAX and (2) Community R.35-3896.  I placed (2) R.5MAX speakers and (1) R.35-3896 on lighting poles on the home side. (3) Ashly KLR amps drive the systems with DBX processing.   

The R.5MAX's cover the field and the visitor side, while the R.5-3896's cover the home-side as "in-fills".  The press box was brand new and I was told absolutely no mounting of speakers on the PB, hence this design.  Also, as with MANY school systems, budgets are not unlimited - you have to deliver on a budget that may not be what you would "want". 

I am not here to promote any one brand or speaker - simply to indicate this was one design.  I've done others using One Systems speakers mounted on press boxes (and poles) and other combinations.  Irrespective, all are driven with multiple amplifiers and DSP.  If an amp fails, announcements can still be made albeit at lower volumes.  I am not a fan of relying on a single amplifier unless no other choice exists financially.

ScottH 

 
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Brian Jojade

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #24 on: June 17, 2021, 06:42:08 PM »

The design should drive the product selection (not the other way around). 


Yes, 100% yes!!!  The detail of equipment choices is pretty much irrelevant as long as what gets put in fits the design criteria.  Different installers likely will have preferred equipment and brands primarily due to familiarity.  For the most part, the end result differences are not going to impact the outcome.  Eg, brand A amplifier vs brand B amplifier both do the same job.  The installer likely will pick the brand they personally are comfortable with.  Speakers tend to have more variety in what they can do, so here you're far more likely to find brand loyalty from the installer.  If someone installs Atlas stuff, that's where they will start with their design. The installer that does community will probably pick from that pool of gear when building their design.  Neither is right or wrong, as long as the equipment fits within their design.  And no, you probably can't take the design from one installer and the equipment from another and expect it to work!

Now, when it does come to design, there are ALWAYS compromises that need to come into play. What should be done is first specify what's required out of the system, such as where you need inputs and how many, and where you need coverage and at what levels.  It's also a good idea to note where you do NOT want coverage, if that's important. Sometimes you need to design a system that makes noise in the stands, but doesn't bother the neighbors across the street. Get that in the spec list!!  Then, if you are working within a budget, make sure that's known.

Now the designer can help make decisions on what corners can be cut out of the specs to help build a design that could fit within the budget, or they could say that it's impossible to put something in that would even come close to what you want for the money you planned to spend.  Saves everyone a ton of frustration if you can do that!
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Brian Jojade

Mike Caldwell

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #25 on: June 17, 2021, 08:26:50 PM »

Mike,



I've attached a few pics of a recent installation that probably comes close to your 1,500 seat high school stadium.  I used (4) Community R.5MAX and (2) Community R.35-3896.  I placed (2) R.5MAX speakers and (1) R.35-3896 on lighting poles on the home side. (3) Ashly KLR amps drive the systems with DBX processing.   

 

Your equipment rack is a classic high school football field system, I done a few that were identical short of the Ashly amps.
 

Chris Jensen

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #26 on: June 30, 2021, 01:32:12 PM »

Modern systems are now much more than speakers.  I would agree that the speakers are the priority so program material can be heard.  However not far behind is the operation of the system for your nontechnical users. 

It is easy to get caught up on the speakers, but I would also advocate that the front end of the system is just as important.  I would really look at something like a Qsys front end to handle all DSP and interfacing.  Being able to create a really clean front end is key, and for those that are a bit more advanced you can have other views that offer more.

 While something like dynamic touch screen interfaces are candy on a system, feeling out your decision makers is important.  Sometimes they are the people that when they find out things like being able to have the system controls on their iphone peak their interest and they find more money.

From a functional perspective to help all the considerations above about misuse, one could program a simple mode off a single button press for practice, or games or whatever.  If able you could even schedule these events to happen on their own.  Things like power sequencing on and off could save your system too.  When the system gets left on after use being able to program off commands in the middle of the night is great, or at least a simple way for the janitor who gets stuck turning it off to interface.

I think the important point is that even if the system won't perform to what you need, think the car analogy above, at least you can build in some safe guards so you don't destroy it.  Just beucase the car can't carry the whole football team, the car can have a self managed system to protect itself.

Chris
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Brian Jojade

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Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #27 on: July 06, 2021, 09:41:11 PM »

Modern systems are now much more than speakers.  I would agree that the speakers are the priority so program material can be heard.  However not far behind is the operation of the system for your nontechnical users. 

100% yes!!  So many times you see systems that end up having too many options for end users that have a hard enough time understanding ON and OFF for the system.  Once the system is designed, making sure that the end user can use it and not destroy it is critical.  Designing in a way for experienced users to make adjustments is a bonus, as long as everything goes back to idiot resistant mode the next time it is used.

The reality is, most of the time, an on off power switch for the system and a volume control for the music source(s) is all you need.  An on/off switch on the mic itself is sufficient and easy enough to understand.  A volume control on the mic should be a usable range, so even turned all the way down, it would still work, and all the way up, even with someone screaming into the mic should not cause damage to the system.

Anything you can do to keep stuff from blowing up is key.  And yes, people will try to find creative ways to blow stuff up!
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Brian Jojade

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: High School stadium Sound System equipment comparison help
« Reply #27 on: July 06, 2021, 09:41:11 PM »


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