ADI

ELECTROVOICE ISSUES A WORLD-WIDE PRESS RELEASE OF MULTI-ZONE NEARFIELD SYSTEM INSTALLATION AT NORTH GEORGIA COLLEGE ON THE WEB!

EV Sx500+: A MULTI-ZONE NEARFIELD SOUND SOLUTION FOR NORTH GEORGIA COLLEGE
School gyms usually have two things in common: (a) the space is used for a lot more than sports alone, and (b) the sound quality therein leaves a lot to be desired unless properly addressed with acoustic treatment and/or sound reinforcement. A new EV system at North Georgia College and State University, designed by Atha Design & Installation and installed by Peachstate Audio, shows how budget and performance can be balanced in a typically reverberant multi-purpose gym space, bringing intelligibility and coverage to every shape and size of event held under its roof.
The prior sound system worked well using the products available when it was installed 18 years ago, but it was time for a different approach. Ricki Atha commented. This is a 45-year-old space that wasnt built with acoustics in mind, and the delayed horn clusters in there really activated the rooms reverberant qualities. The gym is used for a wide range of sports and school events, so we wanted to install a new system that would offer more acoustic control and operational flexibility for the schools changing needs.
A MULTI-ZONE NEARFIELD system of 20 EV Sx500+ boxes was specd to precisely pinpoint acoustic energy when and where needed in the 3500-capacity gym, depending upon the seating setup and application scenario on any given day on the school calendar. The loudspeakers were flown using EV Mb700 forged eyebolt hardware.
When the room is full for graduation ceremonies, the system runs at full power, Atha explained. For convocation assemblies, when the room has half-court seating, we keep the room reflections under control by switching to a six-box setup. For the bleacher seats during basketball games we only focus about a quarter of our available power directly over the court, via the middle ten Sx500+s, running full power over the bleachers via the two outer rows of five Sx500+s. These switchable system configurations offer complete flexibility, and keep the sonic energy focused only where there are people at any given time, keeping room reverb to a minimum as a result. No seat in the house is more than 15-feet from a loudspeaker, and, wherever youre sitting, you'll hear your own speaker and nothing else. Another benefit is we can turn off any redundant amplifiers to further streamline the system performance.
This was quite a radical departure from the traditional cluster systems that are more familiar in spaces like this. We took time to educate the client about the benefits of a MULTI-ZONE NEARFIELD system. And, after the college president presented the faculty convocation immediately prior to the beginning of the school year, we received numerous comments commending us on the radical improvement in sound. The decision to go MULTI-ZONE NEARFIELD speaks for itself!