The Ford Wyoming Center, an arena in Casper that hosts musical and comedy acts as well as sporting tournaments that include the annual College National Final Rodeo (CNFR), was recently given an audio overhaul by AV supplier Equalized Productions that’s headed by a variety of Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) loudspeakers.
Equalized Productions president Dave Kistler worked with Neal Johnson of Colorado-based ProTech Marketing of Colorado on the system design, which includes an QX596i and eight QX566i three-way trapezoidal enclosures for the venue’s lower bowl. Coverage for the upper bowl is delivered by 16 MK2366i two-way loudspeakers were installed, with a single MK2326i for the VIP balcony.
“Previously, the Ford Wyoming Center had a single-center cluster speaker system with horns, which was definitely outdated,” Kistler explains. “It kept going out and didn’t sound great with the amount of feedback they were experiencing. With EAW, we were able to forgo a traditional line array system and instead do a distributed system throughout the arena. The horsepower of the QX Series speakers was a perfect fit for the lower bowl, and the MK Series speakers in the upper bowl checked our boxes for design, sound and budget.
“The intelligibility exceeded our hopes, which was really cool,” he adds. “The QX Series speakers have a great sounding blend across the entire spectrum from low to high end. It was also very easy to tune and balance out the entire room.
“Stepping outside of the traditional line array, we were concerned at first about the setup. We’re so pleased that we didn’t go that route. I think we achieved better results out of the system we designed. With the EAW speaker technology, we have a really nice time-aligned low-end, which is very impressive. It’s at concert-quality level with very clear low-end fidelity that doesn’t taper off like other systems.”
