Stadium Renovation At Austin Peay University Includes New Sound From One Systems

A renovation of Governors Stadium, home to the football team of Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN), includes a new sound reinforcement system implemented by Union City-based Lowrance Sound Company that is headed by One Systems loudspeakers.

“The job started out on a shoestring budget,” explains company owner Mark Lowrance. “We worked hard with the organization to increase the budget, also making sure they were getting the best bang for their buck possible.”

With the goal of blanketing home and visitor seating with coverage, Lowrance ultimately decided that an end zone cluster would provide the desired result while staying within the budget. As a long-time user of One Systems, his approach is based upon the company’s Cross Field Array-2 (CFA-2) loudspeakers, designed to provide high acoustic output with intelligibility in long-throw applications.

“I had used One Systems products before and think they sound great while providing the all-weather features an outdoor system requires,” he notes. After talking with engineer Mike O’Neill, One Systems provided some CFA-2s for evaluation, needing the ability to cover seating located 550 feet away from the scoreboard where the loudspeakers would be positioned.

The demo proved the concept, with Lowrance specifying scoreboard-based left and right arrays of three CFA-2s, joined by four One Systems 118Sub-Ws subwoofers stacked 2 x 2 between the arrays to provide additional low end. “Once the system was installed, the university was even more delighted with them,” Lowrance notes. “They sounded really good everywhere – particularly at the far end of the stadium.”

The stadium’s concourse system at the stadium was also upgraded, with the design originally calling for ceiling loudspeakers that were changed to One Systems 106IM units, a 2-way design with a 6-inch woofer and a proprietary ETS driver feeding a rotatable, constant-directivity horn. “It’s a much better sounding loudspeaker,” Lowrance says. “We could use less of them and provide the same coverage with far better audio quality. We mounted them along the side of the concourse where the concessions were located and they worked perfectly.”

All One Systems models utilized on the project are expressly designed for direct-weather outdoor applications. The CFA-2 has a 3-layer stainless steel grill assembly and a laminated fiberglass construction enclosure with high safety factory structural rigging points, while the 108IM enclosure is molded from a thick-walled co-polymer designed to handle high UV exposure and harsh weather conditions. All external hardware as well as the grille are made of stainless steel.

“Everyone is happy with the new audio system. Bass response is good and the coverage is excellent,” concludes Lowrance. “All in all, it’s a dramatic improvement over the previous audio system.”

One Systems

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