California’s Mission Viejo High School has a lot to celebrate in 2016, 50 years after its founding. Its Diablos football team has a 37-game undefeated streak, and, the school’s football stadium has a new, high-performance audio system with Community W Series loudspeakers.
Designed and installed by Rob and Chase Larson of Larson Lighting & Audio in Laguna Hills, California, Mission Viejo’s new audio system replaces an older paging horn system that had reliability issues and didn’t meet the school’s needs for full-range, high-quality music, clear announcements and even coverage of the stadium. ‘The new system uses 16 W2-2W8 Community loudspeakers installed on four poles in front of the home stands,’ says Chase. ‘We did an Ease layout that showed the loudspeakers would do a great job covering the home and visitor stands and provide field coverage as well. And, they’re high enough to avoid obstructing any sight-lines.’
Mission Viejo’s new system also uses QSC PLD amplifiers, an Allen & Heath mixing and Shure wired and wireless microphones. ‘We upgraded the stadium’s entire audio infrastructure,’ Rob confirms. ‘All of the electronics are new and we replaced the old 70V wiring with 10-gauge cable for an 8Ω design.’ Larson Lighting & Audio installed the loudspeakers using Community PMB-2RR mounting brackets and equalized the system using the amplifier DSP. ‘We dropped the Community loudspeaker profiles into the DSP,’ Chase says. ‘And, that’s all the EQ we needed.’
Chase believes that the new system has ample level to overcome noise from the nearby freeway without distortion and it has ‘perfect clarity’ for announcements: ‘With the old system, the school had frequent complaints from its neighbours. Now, we’ve got 9dB to 12dB more level and wider frequency range but the Community loudspeakers have much better coverage control and those complaints have stopped.’
‘Everyone loves the system – the fans, the cheer squad, the team,’ Rob adds. ‘The system looks great and we’ve got plenty of low-end without subs. The superintendent said, “congratulations, you’ve hit a home run”.’
