Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, New Zealand has a reputation for high achievement. Recently the school decided to invest more than $3.5 million to create a complex that will be home to four netball and six tennis courts.
The playing courts feature an all-weather canopy that covers more than 4,200 square yards (3,540 square metres) of surface area. At the center of the canopy is a cluster of One Systems loudspeakers designed to provide sound reinforcement during sporting events and school assemblies.
Leonard Lucas of Atlantic Audio Limited headed up the audio project. He had success using One Systems weather resistant loudspeakers in outdoor installations in the past and felt confident they would meet the demands of the system.
“Although the canopy protects the space from rain, it can’t do anything about fog, wind, or the temperature,” explains Lucas. “It was imperative that that the loudspeakers be impervious to weather.
Lucas tapped Robert Te’o of True Audio to design and install a system that would meet the schools expectations for vocal intelligibility and musicality.
Te’o specified six One Systems 108IM (100v) loudspeakers which were mounted in the center of the canopy on a custom made central cluster fitting using the 108IM-U U-brackets. The cluster fitting was painted to match the white of the One System loudspeakers and brackets to ensure visual uniformity.
The One Systems 108IM is a compact, direct-weather 8-inch two-way loudspeaker with a copolymer enclosure designed for applications that require high vocal intelligibility and musical accuracy. The loudspeaker is loaded with a single 8-inch woofer and One Systems ETS driver coupled to a fully-rotatable, constant directivity high-frequency horn.
The patented ETS driver is a unique “equivalent throat” design that allows its radiation pattern to be controlled by the phase plug summation plane instead of the conventional “exit diameter” at the end of the driver’s structure. As a result, the compact 108IM was more than capable of providing the throw and high power handling the application required.
The 108IM loudspeakers are powered by a B-52 US-3000 amplifier connected to a Proel 19-inch TRL600.2 100V transformer ( 2 x 600 watt) rack-mounted in a waterproof rack situated in the middle of the cluster.
The rack is also home to an Allen & Heath iDR-4 matrix mixer – with a PL10 wall plate controller installed in a concrete wall below – for system control and processing as well as an Audio-Technica 2000 series wireless microphone system with ATWA49 Dipole antennas.
“The school is very happy with the performance and simplicity of operation,” concludes Lucas. “The cluster provides excellent coverage for music and public announcements.”
