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SB-1 Key to Superior Dome Sound
Best known to football fans as the home of the Indianapolis Colts, the 60,000-capacity RCA Dome also plays host to a variety of concerts and special events outside the NFL season. For example, earlier this year thousands of delegates from Assembly of God (AOG) churches gathered here for the denomination's World Triennial Congress. In contrast to NFL games, where the visual action on the field is paramount, for this four-day meeting the primary emphasis fell on music and the spoken word. Consequently, high quality sound reinforcement was crucial to the success of the event. The church contracted Dan Castor of Encore Productions to handle all production logistics, and, with audio playing a pivotal role, Castor turned to Duncan Edwards of New York-based Audio Design International to create a state-of-the-art system—one equally suited to preaching, contemporary music styles, or large orchestras with massed choirs. After surveying overall requirements, Edwards quickly realized the RCA Dome's unique structure imposed some obvious limitations. As an air-supported "pillow dome," it allowed no options for suspending speakers from the ceiling. All sound sources would have to emanate from the stage trusses or from delay towers on the floor. With these restrictions in mind, Edwards decided to augment the horn-based elements of the Meyer Self-Powered loudspeaker system with a contingent of eight parabolic SB-1 Sound Beams. Striking a Better Balance "The performance of the Sound Beams was awesome," says Edwards. "I was amazed by the way the sound was absolutely coherent in the rear of the auditorium, nearly 400 feet away. Because there were no overlapping patterns, everything above 500Hz was beautiful, with the lows and low-mids filled in by the delays. It was really sweet in the back, without being too loud." According to Edwards, the Sound Beams allowed him to create a far more balanced and uniform distribution of sound in the distant seats. "Usually in stadiums like this, you have to drive the delays pretty hard to get the highs into the back seats. But with the Sound Beams, I could hold back the delays, which cut back on the low-end lobing around the delay boxes. The coverage was very smooth, with no corruption of sound around the delay towers." All Meyer Self-Powered The house system for the AOG event consisted entirely of Meyer Sound Self-Powered loudspeakers. In addition to the eight SB-1 Sound Beams, the long-throw requirements were handled by four clusters each comprising two MSL-6 full range systems, two PSW-6 cardioid subwoofers and two MSL-4s for middle distances. Two more MSL-4 cabinets, hung inside the main clusters, covered the near-center areas, while three CQ-2 systems filled in the stage front seating. Low frequencies were augmented by twelve 650-P subwoofers, splayed outward and curved around the stage corners. For choir monitors, covering the risers for up to 5000 singers behind the stage, Edwards specified two clusters, each with three MSL-4s and two CQ-2s. The two delay positions, set about 280 feet back from the stage, each employed a pair of MSL-6 full range cabinets. "The MSL-6s gave me a very precise 60 degrees of coverage, "comments Edwards, "and whenever possible I like to use the same speakers for delays as in the main clusters to get a more consistent sound throughout." The primary sound system contractor for the event was Spectrum Sound of Nashville, with rental of most Meyer components subcontracted to Solotech of Montreal. Dome Veterans Speak Stage II Productions of nearby Alexandria, Indiana provided logistical support and audio crew staffing. Stage II's Jim Hammond, who served as FOH mixer, has worked the Dome on a number of occasions and was duly impressed by what he heard. "I'd certainly rate this system as excellent," he stated unequivocally. "The intelligibility and gain before feedback were particularly outstanding. Also, because of the very high Q of the system–the Sound Beams in particular are the highest Q devices we've used in there–the room bounce was far better controlled. It was a good week. Everything sounded great." Encore's Dan Castor, who has produced the great majority of high-attendance conference events held in the RCA Dome, expressed similar enthusiasm over the sound quality of the system. "This was the first time I'd heard the Sound Beam technology," he says, "and the use of these devices undoubtedly helped address the typical reverberation problems while keeping the source timed. The overall result was even coverage, high intelligibility and musicality for the entire audience." During the four days of the AOG event, representatives of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association brought potential clients into the Dome to see and hear first-hand what they could expect for their event. Reports Castor: "The comments we received back after these visits were very positive regarding both the intelligibility and musicality of the sound." Duncan Edwards reports hearing an even more definitive evaluation: "I understand some people from the conventions and visitors association voted it the best sound ever in the Dome. I'm not sure if that's true, but if it is, it's a fitting compliment to all the work we put into the system." December, 2000 |
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