| Gentlemen
Start Your
(DSP) Engines
By Josh Thompson
Racing sound for
audiences of sizes rivaling that of many cities
|
 
1 2
|
Auto racing is the most popular sporting event in the world. Last
year’s attendance for the three leading series of NASCAR topped
10 million fans, with a combined average of over 290,000 spectators
per event. With more than 400 million viewers tuned into NASCAR,
racing has eclipsed all other sports, with the exception of the
Summer Olympics and World Cup Soccer, which only occur every four
years (Source: RaceStat; Newport, R.I.). With audiences that rival
the population of many cities, racing events are truly big-time
entertainment.
At 6:00 a.m. on a balmy summer morning, the RV’s file through
the gates, the first indication that another race-week has begun.
In a mile long convoy, motor homes line up bumper -to -bumper, each
angling for the prime camping grounds nearest the racetrack. Vendors
and team merchandise trailers begin to arrive and setup the midway,
offering T-shirts, caps, souvenirs and radio scanners to the fans
who will soon descend upon the speedway.
| 
Half of the new main grandstand under construction at the Las Vegas
Motor Speedway.
|
|
As the week progresses, still
more fans arrive in eager anticipation of the racing events
soon to come. Teams test their machines, getting ready for
qualifying and the high-stakes dash that is rapidly approaching.
Broadcasters enter the TV compound, setting camera locations
and running miles of camera and audio cables around the track.
The facility readies itself for the onslaught of revved-up
race fans, with many of them traveling from around the country
to attend. |
Working in concert, the race sanctioning body (NASCAR, IRL, ARCA
and others), the speedway’s personnel and broadcasters are
all focused on only one goal — the show. Inside racing circles,
a race is rarely called a race, it’s a show, and the show
really begins the second a fan enters the speedway.
ONE GIGANTIC PARTY
Put simply, racing is loud — loud cars, loud fans (wearing
loud T-shirts), and a loud PA, all in competition with each other.
Reaching levels of 115dBA with a full track and a green flag, there
is little room in the audio spectrum during the race for public
address.
Furthermore, a large part of the race experience is the sound of
the cars themselves. A little splutter of the engine as a car passes
by can indicate to the race fan that his favorite driver may be
in for a long day. Any attempt to drown out the cars with audio
robs the fan of this personal interaction with the vehicles they
came to see and cheer for.
| 
One of the 30 clusters in the turns and triovals at the Las Vegas
Motor Speedway.
|
|
As with any large assembly of
people, let alone the quarter-million or more that can attend
a Winston Cup event, it is critical to keep the crowd informed
and entertained. This is most true when the track is cold
(no cars on the track). As any race fan will attest, there
are long stretches of time at the speedway without any activity
at all on the track. In these times, highquality intelligible
audio becomes critical to the fans’ enjoyment of the
event.
In the past, and in many outdated tracks today, 70V horns
hung from the crash-fence were viewed as all that was necessary
for public address at a racetrack. Barking advertisements
and statistics at those in the stands represented the extent
of pre-show entertainment offered by the facility. This may
have been viable in the past, but today’s race fan demands
more.
In response, modern, well-equipped speedways, with the guidance
of wAVecrest Systems, have installed highperformance systems
designed to fire-up the crowd and set the stage for the race.
The most recent installs have occurred at the Kentucky Speedway,
the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Lake Erie Motor Speedway.
In the hours leading up to an event, thousands upon thousands
of fans pile into a speedway, food and beer are flowing, music
is pumping and the air becomes energized |
Though many fans take their sport seriously, everyone is at the
track to have a good time and party, and you can’t have a
party without a good PA. Though seemingly slow to catch on, many
facilities are rapidly improving the quality of their PA’s
in an attempt to catch up in a race of a different kind —
who can throw the biggest, baddest race-centered party in the country.
|
