The athletic facilities at Chadron State College (Nebraska) have been given a long-anticipated update, with powerful new sound systems installed at the school’s softball field and Don Beebe Stadium at Elliot Field.
Rapid City, South Dakota-based Haggerty Audio Video designed and installed the systems, both centered around Community Professional R-Series loudspeakers. As Haggerty’s Steve Foudray explains, the facilities had been sorely in need of audio improvements.
“The football stadium had several issues, each reinforcing the other,” he says. “The system itself was underpowered – just a few old horns and a single 100-watt amp – so it was low fidelity and distorted to begin with.
“The horns were also mounted on the scoreboards at one end of the field, so there was a time delay between the announcer and the horns. And the horns were directly across from the large gymnasium building, creating an echo problem.”
Dale Grant, Chadron State’s vice president for administration, confirms that the old systems left the college wanting. “I don’t think anyone who has been to a football game at Elliott Field would argue that we needed to do something different there,” he said.
The Haggerty team of Foudray, Mike Moore and Dan Haggerty replaced the 40-year-old horns with four Community R.5 full-range two-way loudspeakers covering the bleacher seating, and a pair of Community R1-94 long-throw systems for the end zones.
“We created a vertical array with four R.5 subwoofers and an R.5HP on a custom bracket,” says Foudray. “It keeps the SPL of the bleachers under control, and fills the entire field.” The systems are powered by Electro-Voice CPS Series amplifiers and tailored with Rane digital signal processing.
For the new system at the softball field, three Community R.5COAX two-way systems are driven by a Crown XTI 1000 power amplifier.
Both systems were designed using EASE and tuned using EAW Smaart.
Foudray reports the school is thrilled with the improvements, having long been lacking good sound system.
“They’ve never even bothered with music, since it sounded so bad,” he says. “But we’ve used the R-Series on dozens of projects, and there’s nothing better, particularly for outdoor use. I’m really impressed with the R.5-Sub. It’s a powerhouse.”
