Audio among the clouds
Nov 1, 1998 12:00 PM, Gregory A. DeTogne
A destination resort situated in New Jersey's Kittatinny Mountains, Mountain Creek takes pride in offering something for everyone. Developed by Intrawest, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, the property draws crowds with multiseasonal attractions ranging from the sprawling wave pool in its water park to 1,040 vertical feet (317 m) of downhill skiing.
One of nine mountain resorts in North America operated by Intrawest, Mountain Creek was formerly known as the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge Ski Area and Action Park. When the property was acquired by Intrawest in February 1998, Mountain Creek president Robin Smith wasted little time in announcing that visitors could start expecting some changes. With $5 million earmarked for 1998 summer season improvements alone, Smith also revealed that plans were underway to spend $25 million more to create a haven for New York metro area ski and snowboard enthusiasts.
"Our goal is to create a family-oriented park in tune with the natural setting of our mountainside location," he exclaimed. "Tothat end, we've added several new attractions and revamped, reworked and reorganized every existing attraction on the mountain."
Mountain Creek kicked off its summer season on June 15, 1998, with the opening of one of the largest water parks in North America. The park houses 24 slides and pools, including a cliff jump, a 75 foot (23 m) speed slide, and Cannonball Falls, a completely enclosed body flume. This winter, plans call for unveiling a snowboard park, 26 miles (42 km) of new snowmaking pipe, 714 new snowmaking hydrants and a series of state-of-the-art lifts, including an eight-passenger gondola.
Not overlooked in Mountain Creek's revitalizing scheme thus far are the music systems serving the only main lodge area currently in use at the park (a complete renovation of the resort's old South Lodge is underway, but not yet complete). As with the rest of the property's attractions, mindful attention has been given to ensuring that these systems maintain levels of flexibility capable of catering to the widely varied tastes of guests, young and old.
Following an analysis of the environment, Intrawest management decided to start afresh. To that end, they conferred with Tony Pecoraro, their electrical contractor. Pecoraro, whose firm, Pecoraro Electric, is based at the foot of the mountain in the village of Vernon, made a call to nearby Totowa, NJ, and enlisted the aid of local systems designer Dave Simonetti. Owner of Sim-O-Rama Sound, Simonetti accepted the challenge and met with both Pecoraro and an Intrawest representative to discuss Mountain Creek's needs.
As described to Simonetti, the resort wanted to install five turnkey audio systems, all of which would be dedicated to providing reinforcement for musical program material. Located at the southern end of the main lodge, the first system would serve a large, hexagonal multipurpose environment. Equally cavernous in capacity, the Vernon Cafeteria brought Simonetti face to face with a completely different set of design and performance dilemmas. Of the remaining three systems, two were scheduled to serve food service and bar areas. The last was to be a mobile platform for DJ activities.
Simonetti committed himself to a plan that came together under a demanding timeframe. First hearing of the project in late April, he completed his specifications less than two weeks later to ensure that Pecoraro Electric could finish each system's construction by the water park's opening.
The biggest challenge involved the need for flexibility. In the reverberant multipurpose room (appropriately called "the hex area"), he had to create a system that could manage the needs of both live performances and recorded program material in a fashion that allowed even inexperienced system users to switch from one application to another quickly.
Similarly demanding in form and function, the Vernon Cafeteria is more than a place where patrons line up with trays, pay for their food, then search out a table amidst the drone of an unintelligible 70 V distributed system. Among the more arduous sound system tasks required of the space are the youthful gatherings where high SPLs and dancing are the norm. Therefore, this system needed the power to work 12-hour shifts, providing high-fidelity background music and then function well into the night.
For the smaller satellite systems in the food service and bar areas, sound had to meet the same quality standards as imposed on the larger spaces while remaining focused so as not to spill into surrounding areas. On a final note, the DJ system had to be both mobile and capable of easy interfacing with any of the other systems.
A bar resides at the core of the hex area enclosed by the room's open space, vaulted ceiling, and six sides of reflective glass surfaces, each of which measure 60 feet (18.3 m) in length. In taming the environment's reverberation times, Simonetti relied upon eight full-range WS-AT300 loudspeakers from Panasonic Pro Audio/RAMSA supplemented at the low-end by eight more WS-AT350 subwoofers. Distributed along platforms around the edge of the room side by side, the loudspeaker arrays focus directly onto the listening area. Representing one of the first appearances of these components in the United States, the arrival of the WS-AT300s and WS-AT350s proved to be a case of perfect timing.
"I was looking for a two-way, 15 inch (381 mm) bass reflex loudspeaker system to complete the design for the hex area," Simonetti recalled. "With a 60 degrees x 40 degrees pattern that would bring focus to the room's energy without aggravating the reverberant field, the RAMSA devices showed up on cue, providing an instant, dependable solution."
With a frequency response of 70 Hz to 18 kHz, a full-range WS-AT300 cabinet directs signals to a 15 inch (381 mm), low-frequency transducer and then crosses over at 2.2 kHz into a constant-directivity horn coupled with a proprietary compression driver employing what RAMSA refers to as Square Contour Wave Guide (SCWG) technology. Unlike traditional rectangular horns, which radiate sound in a diamond-shaped pattern, RAMSA's horn radiates in a circular pattern, thereby reducing phase cancellation while offering directivity control at angles of 45 degrees horizontally, vertically and obliquely. Capable of handling 400 W continuous program, the WS-AT300's trapezoidal enclosure is made from molded resin.
The WS-AT350 subwoofer employs a 15 inch (381 mm) bass reflex design that extends low-end response to 30 Hz. Once again imparting a tight, 60 degrees x 40 degrees footprint upon its listening environment, the bass bin receives direction from RAMSA's dedicated WS-SP2A subwoofer processor. Equipped with a limiter that prevents the full-range WS-AT300 from over-extending itself on bass passages, the processor channels low-frequency energy from each of the system's stereo channels into a mono summing circuit to bring low-frequency boost into the equation at 80 Hz.
Once the loudspeaker arrays were selected for the hex array, the design made serious headway in meeting the performance needs of the room's live and recorded program sources. Simonetti fueled the system with six RAMSA WP-1400 amps that produce 400 W/channel into 4 V.
Next came the unresolved system flexibility issues. As Simonetti viewed the situation, the system could meet its multipurpose demands most easily and cost effectively via the control end, where a 12-channel RAMSA WR-S4412A console was put to work as the main house board. Featuring four groups with left and right masters, four aux channels and four returns, the WR-S4412A relinquishes control of the system to a Rane MP-22 unit when live acts are brought in.
In keeping with the minimalist, user-friendly mindset of his design, the hex area input list consists of a head-worn wireless mic from Audio-Technica, a hand-held, hardwired MB-3000 mic also from Audio-Technica, and a top-loading CDX-12 dual-CD player from Vestax (as of this writing, input devices are imported as needed for each live act's appearance). With power arriving via a Furman PM-8 panel, all system electronics are neatly housed in a single 20 RU rack.
Two of the small systems Simonetti created for Mountain Creek-those previously mentioned in a food service area serving pizza and another heard by patrons of the Cowboy Bar-meet the resort's versatility criteria by accepting feeds from either the hex area system, a satellite-based music service that can be routed to all areas, the portable DJ system or, in the case of the Cowboy Bar, from its own input sources as mixed by a WR-M10A console.
Sound reinforcement for those ordering pizza comes from four overhead RAMSA WS-A35 near-field loudspeakers held in place with WS-AQ4W mounting brackets. Power comes from a RAMSA WP-1200 amp producing 200 W/channel into 4 V.
Back in the Cowboy Bar, the atmosphere is amply excited thanks to another pair of trapezoidal, full-range WS-AT300 enclosures fortified at the bottom end by matching WS-AT350 subwoofers. RAMSA WP-1200 power amps complete the system.
One of the regulars in the bar is the Simonetti-designed portable DJ system. The system moves about in a two-piece cabinet that is slanted at the top and houses components, including an MX750 mixer from MTX. Offering DJs an efficient front end that can be interfaced in any of the Mountain Creek venues, the DJ rolling stock can stand on its own rackspace thanks to four compact RAMSA WS-A200 two-way enclosures and a pair of WP-1200 power amps. A Denon DN-2000 MK III dual CD player joins the parade.
Completing Simonetti's Mountain Creek efforts is the system designed for the Vernon Cafeteria. Adding two more sides to the hex area's six in creating a sizable, octagonal area of coverage, the cafeteria is ringed by 10 RAMSA WS-A35s. Capable of posting a flat, wide-band frequency response running from 80 Hz to 20 kHz, the two-way bass reflex units house 6 inch (152 mm) woofers and RAMSA's WG 90 degrees constant-directivity spherical horns. Peaking at 140 W continuous program, the devices bring direct-coupled background music to the cafeteria's seating areas.
For the previously mentioned heavy-duty, high-SPL youthful gatherings that regularly spill into the cafeteria, another dual WS-AT300/WS-AT350 combination is used. Selectable upon demand as a supplement to the WS-A35s above, this separate system draws power from three WP-1200s and two WP-1400s. Mixing falls upon the shoulders of another WR-M10A.
Following in Dave Simonetti's design footsteps, Pecoraro Electric completed the construction of all five Mountain Creek systems in two days. After another two days of tuning, the keys were handed over to a pleased client.
Today, Mountain Creek continues with plans for further improvement. The reopening of the still-under-construction south lodge will reveal yet another Simonetti creation. If there is any lesson here for system integrators, it is that with the proliferation of all-season mountain resorts of this nature, new market opportunities will open. Audio goes well with water sports after all, and it is viewed by snow-boarding enthusiasts as a vital part of their sport.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
