The Robert P. Knowles Center at the University of Wisconsin River Falls is a busy place, home to the university’s indoor track and field, tennis and multiple intramural sporting teams, as well as a wide and growing range of community activities and events.
The arena houses a 200-meter indoor running track, a rock climbing wall, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, exercise center and more. It’s a versatile yet acoustically challenging venue.
“The announcements were pretty much unintelligible except right underneath the loudspeakers,” says Intermedia Systems Group’s Doug Klein, which recently specified and installed a new sound system to serve the venue. “It was less than ideal to begin with, and as they’ve begun to diversify the use of the center, it got to a point where they really needed to address the audio situation.”
Intermedia consultant Joel Evermann specified a distributed system centered on eight Community Professional R.5 coaxial loudspeakers, powered by Ashley NE amplification.
Two Community CPL55W subwoofers cover bottom end, and a Biamp Nexia unit provides system DSP. Shure ULX wireless microphone systems are utilized for a wide range of public address needs.
“They use the building for such a wide range of activities, from commencements and rallies to sporting events,” says Klein. “They needed good coverage and intelligibility, but they also wanted musicality. The R.5s are powerhouses, and they do a great job of covering the space. The inclusion of the CPL subs really filled it out nicely.”
