After Hurricane Gustav hit Baton Rouge in September of 2008, the city was shut down for several days due to damage.

At Southern University and A&M College, damage to 29,500-seat A.W. Mumford Stadium was significant but manageable.

“It seems like a pretty minor issue but the truth is, losing the revenue generated by a home football game is significant,” notes Henry L. Thurman III, Director of the Physical Plant for Southern.

“We had lost the entire sound system from our scoreboard as a result of the storm, and had to get it replaced inside of two weeks’ time.”

Thurman contacted Tim Landry Sound Construction of nearby Mandeville, LA. “Mumford Stadium is a classic horseshoe shape,” notes Tim Landry.

“The scoreboard is at the open end and has to cover the entire stadium. That’s a throw of over 400 feet to the far end.

The first speakers I thought of were the Turbosound Aspect line.”

Working with the physical frame in which the old system was mounted, Landry designed a system consisting of ten speakers, designed to cover the stadium in three zones.

For both mid and long throws, Landry specified the TA-880H, a 3-way mid/high, narrow-dispersion (25x15 degrees).

For the “near” seats on either side close to the scoreboard, Landry selected the Aspect TA-500, a full-range design which features a wider 50 degree dispersion and produces 141 dB peak SPL. To cover the need for a big low end, four Turbosound TSW-218 subwoofers were mounted in the center of the array.

The cluster is mounted in a large steel frame, with the subwoofers bolted together in the center, flanked by two TA-800H speakers on either side, splayed as needed. On the far outside edges of the cluster are TA-500s, aimed about 75 degrees off center to either side.

“It’s not a cluster in the traditional sense,” Everything is bolted on frames and then bolted to the structure, which is actually bolted to the floor of the scoreboard. The whole thing is nearly 35 feet wide.”

The system is powered by Crown amplifiers and controlled with an Ashly 24.24M processor. “To cover a 29,000-seat stadium from a single cluster, you’ve got to use DSP,” notes Landry. “If you lose your DSP, you’re out of business. That’s why we install two of them, programmed identically.”

While the speakers are somewhat protected within the scoreboard, Landry had them weatherproofed and placed behind a grille. “They can still get wet in a hard-driven rain, but the Turbosounds can take it,” declares Landry. “

From design to installation, the Southern University scoreboard installation took twelve days. “That was some fast action,” Landry recalls. “We had an 85-foot lift to get to the scoreboard. To get the crane, the amps and the speakers on site and installed in that timeframe, especially after an event like Hurricane Gustav, was remarkable.”

Thurman, who also is the PA announcer, agrees. “With our old system, I would spend all day Monday handling complaints about the sound. Couldn’t hear it, couldn’t understand the announcer, you name it,” he recalls. “It’s been a year since we put in the Turbosound system, and I’m still waiting for my first complaint. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Turbosound Website