Having been closed for years, the elevated monorail track in the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley has entered a new lease of its life as the Treetop Trail, providing zoo visitors with a fresh perspective on the zoo’s natural environment. True North Consulting Group too care of a new security and distributed audio system for the trail, incorporating 56 Electro-Voice Evid-S5.2X loudspeakers.

‘Throughout the year, temperatures range from -25°F to 115°F with snow, ice, rain and sun – it was of extreme importance to use loudspeakers that are designed to withstand the weather environment in Minneapolis,’ explains True North Consulting Group technology consultant, Jiggs Lee. ‘The trail will be open year-round. The Evid-S5.2X offers exceptional audio quality and is known for its reliability and being built to last.’

The 1.25-mile-long path brings guests up to 32ft above the ground. The Evid loudspeakers are bracket-mounted on poles distributed throughout and under the trail, and are used for public address and other sound reinforcement needs the zoo has.

‘In addition to its ability to handle the weather, we chose the Evid-S5.2X for the Treetop Trail because for full range and wide, uniform dispersion,’ adds Minnesota Zoo audiovisual technician, Luke Mapes. ‘Its small package and clean design offer minimal visual impact – another key component. We use the system to make daily announcements and as an emergency PA if needed. We wanted a more musical-sounding speaker than the traditional PA system style speaker, for better intelligibility. The Evid-S5.2X meets all our needs.’

The Evid-S5.2X is a two-way, full-range, 5.25-inch surfacemount loudspeaker designed for background and foreground music, voice evacuation, paging and sound reinforcement. It is engineered to resist the harshest weather conditions without compromising performance for indoor applications. The full-range speaker is IP65 rated, and its weatherproofing is complemented by exceptional cabinet and grille resistance against sun, salt, moisture and chlorine.

The loudspeakers are supplied with a U-Bracket that allows 80° of rotation on the trail’s mounting poles, while each pole also carries security cameras and wireless access points, providing access for monitoring and maintenance and integration with other systems in the park.

‘The public address system helps operationalise the zoo’s closing procedures,’ Minnesota Zoo Director of Guest Experience Jessica Madole explains. ‘It is also critical in assisting with weather-related closures and evacuations. In addition to zoo staff assisting guests in a weather-related evacuation situation, having the ability to announce information and instructions clearly across the entirety of the trail makes these efforts much more efficient.’

The Evid-S5.2X uses a 60W transformer that offers a selection of 7.5 (70V only), 15W, 30W and 60W using either 70V or 100V lines or 8Ω bypass for low-impedance lines. Selection is done with a switch on the input panel on the rear of the loudspeaker.

There are several ‘lookouts’ along the trail, which serve as areas of interest in which zoo docents inform visitors about the area they’re in or animals they can see. These lookouts will also be used for small-scale musical performances through the zoo’s planned Music in the Trees programme. Featuring a rotation of different musicians and styles, visitors will be able to listen to soothing melodies under the canopy on select Sunday afternoons. Powering the docent-led talks and musical performances along the trail are UBX Series loudspeakers from Renkus-Heinz.

Prior to breaking ground, zoo staff contacted Texas-based True North Consulting Company (TNCG) to design the A/V system for the walking path. Jiggs Lee, a senior consultant with TNCG, was responsible for recommending Renkus-Heinz’s solution to Jon Martin, True North’s Director of Design Services.

‘The company turned to me because I have a lot of experience with loudspeakers and am familiar with the location and its environmental extremes,’ says Lee. ‘Number one, we needed a loudspeaker that can function in Minnesota’s outdoor environment, which can get down to -25°F in the winter and triple digits in the summer because the trail will be open year-round. Secondly, we needed a loudspeaker with a wide horizontal dispersion that focused the sound on where people’s ears are instead of splashing it all over the place. My previous experience working with Renkus-Heinz’s loudspeakers made me think UBX would be the perfect fit.’

Under the watchful eye of Project Manager Micah Ramsey, 18 UBX4 loudspeakers were installed at the lookouts along the trail, which range in size from 12ft x 20ft across where they bump out to 12ft x 90ft across. Many of the larger lookouts have built-in seating for visitors to sit and watch a presentation. The UBX4 features a compact, slender cabinet, making it easy to blend into an immersive environment like the Treetop Trail. However, it still delivers precise vertical pattern control and an unmatched combination of features for a loudspeaker of its size.

The UBX Series brings the coverage, intelligibility and sound quality of Renkus-Heinz’s flagship Iconyx loudspeakers into the realm of passive column arrays. New for the UBX Series is Passive UniBeam Technology which addresses each transducer with specially designed all-pass filter networks, gain shading and additional frequency filtering to generate an asymmetrical vertical dispersion with constant directivity, delivering consistent front-to-back coverage with minimal side lobe artifacts. All models in the UBX Series are weather-resistant (IP64) out of the box with the included gland nut-protected input cover. The included 70/100V transformer, wall-mount bracket and standard weather resistance make UBX loudspeakers simple to integrate into any system design, whether indoor or outdoor.

‘I think the Treetop Trail is going to be an extraordinary addition to the Minnesota Zoo,’ Lee sats. ‘And even though the audio doesn’t play an equal role when compared to the visual grandeur of the animals and environment, I’m still really excited that Renkus-Heinz gets to play a role in that experience.’