Before kickoff of each East Carolina University (ECU) football game, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’ is played over the sound system at the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The crowd roars and the Pirates take the field. It’s just part of the game day experience for ECU Pirate alumni, fans and students. And it’s fitting, as the stadium dates back to the early 1960s.
The first football game at Dowdy-Ficklen stadium was played on 21 September 1963. At the time, the facility comprised a 10,000-seat grandstand – now it has a capacity of 51,000, including a club level, loge boxes and suites and a new HD video/scoreboard completed in 2019. However, until very recently the audio needed a upgrade.
‘In 2010, we put in a PA system,’ says ECU Associate Athletics Director of External Relations, Greg Pierce. ‘As time went on, we lost amps and speakers. Before long, the band-aids were becoming more expensive than the surgery, so we decided to do something new.’
Given the facility’s recent renovations, the new sound system needed to match the quality of experience ECU Athletics was working to create. North Carolina-based PC Sound and Danley partner Precision Audio was selected for the project.
‘This is the first installation in the country of Danley’s new J8-94,’ says Precision Audio’s Scott Carneval. ‘One of the incredible things about Danley loudspeakers is that we can cover the entire field from the scoreboard. With other products to get intelligible sound and clarity, it requires a distributed system which means infrastructure and installing dozens if not hundreds of speakers. With Danley, we can generate that same quality with just a handful of speakers.’
The Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium installation uses two J8-94 loudspeakers for far coverage, two J7-95 loudspeakers for near coverage, a single SH62 loudspeaker for field coverage and three SH46 loudspeakers as down fills from the board. In addition, there are 4 BC415 subwoofers in the board all powered by Danley DNA20K4 amplifiers.
‘The biggest change is the crispness of the audio,’ says Pierce. ‘When you can walk into a facility like this, you can feel the hits, the cheers, the boos for the other team. Now, when you can feel the announcer say “First Down Pirates” and the music, it makes a huge difference.’
‘For me, it’s wonderful as I don’t hear any complaints,’ reports East Carolina University Athletic Director, Jon Gilbert. ‘We have new video boards, new LED ribbon boards, but I’d argue that the fan base is most excited about the new sound system.’
‘Everyone has been ecstatic about the new system,’ adds Danley Sound Labs Sports Customer Relationship Manager, Harold Sexton. ‘When you can let the product speak for itself, you can hear the difference.’
More: www.danleysoundlabs.com
