More commonly known as Raley Field, the 14,000-capacity Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, is home to the River Cats baseball team and ‘A’s’ (Athletics), where a major upgrade of its sound infrastructure has been conducted to ‘enhance the fan experience’ and improve game-day technology.
Based around Martin Audio CDD and SX subwoofer components, as well as process-controlled amplification from Focusrite sister brand, Linea Research, the new installation takes over a 25-year-old one that badly needed replacing.
‘The brief was to get the present system back up and running after they had completely gutted the control room,’ says Sacramento Production Services (SACPS) Sales & Production Manager, Keith Wackford. ‘In the process they asked what could be done we do to upgrade the system? They wanted a major league experience in a minor league park on a minor league budget.’
Wackford and his long-term associate and Project Manager Anthony Brown undertook a site survey and immediately recognised the imperfections – aside from the tired PA components. Budget and time frame restrictions would not allow for replacement of the main bowl speakers. ‘But with the addition of the new Linea Research amplification [LR-44C10M-Dante], it’s as if they purchased new speakers,’ Wackford says.
‘Elsewhere, it was a case of what would give us the best bang for the buck. We knew the system had always been lacking in subwoofers and if we were going to put in subs, we also needed to ensure the in fill and out fill boxes would keep up.’
As a long-term Martin Audio partner SACPS contacted Will Harris and Jim Sage at Martin Audio USA, who recommended the SX115. ‘The 25-year-old outfield speakers on light poles were in really bad shape and, although difficult to get access to, we knew we had to change them and replace them with [weatherised] CDD15W-WR’ Wackford acknowledges, ‘For how high up they are, everyone is absolutely impressed.
‘The CDD15 gave us a little more low end and full range in the outfield, as the bowl PA doesn’t really reach out to there. We also like CDDs whole intelligibility; at low volumes it’s got a really good intelligibility out of the far throw, plus it’s impressive how wide they are at the near point.’
Distributed around the bowl, the subs themselves are mounted on I-Beams to the underside of the VIP suites, while 30 CDD10W-WR bowl fill speakers were added in conjunction with subwoofers. After consideration, they opted for one per each seating section, running right round the facility.
‘We are impressed with CDD10, for its throw and intelligibility. and the way it couples to the high frequency driver to carry the HF driver a bit further. One of the reasons we went for the CDD10 over the CDD8 is because it has a yoke, and we wanted something that would allow us to pan and tilt in an easy manner.’
In addition to the amplifiers and loudspeakers, SACPS upgraded the mixing console, and main system processor and touchscreen interfaces to Symetrix systems.
‘Symetrix allowed us to use the Linea Research Intelligent modules bringing the amplifier telemetry data right onto the users’ touchscreen remote – giving the user information as to what the nine LR-44CC status and signals are doing. The system is all running Dante with an analogue fail over from the console to the Symetrix, and to all nine LR-44C amps around the facility,’ Wackford explains.
The venue is directly adjacent to downtown Sacramento, with a whole neighbourhood growing up around it. ‘We had a crazy speed limit of – I think – 85dB, A-weighted 15ft from a source. So trying to do line array from the outfield or subs up high wouldn’t work. We had to keep things contained within the ballpark as there are a lot of new apartments with high rise buildings springing up. Everything distributed as close to the listening area as possible is critical.’
System feeds include DJs on the concourse, taking advantage of the new audio inputs, and there are plans for future live entertainment. Main PA and pre-recorded live safety messages also run through the system. ‘Messaging now sounds so much better,’ Wackford reports.
Anthony Brown served as Project Manager; onsite programming and networking were provided by Brian Webber, while due to the tight time frame Alive Media came in to provide on-site installation, wiring and labour. Finally, Symetrix programmer Nick Danielson did ‘an amazing job’, according to Wackford.