On this edition of the SVC Podcast, Contributing Editor Bennett Liles resumes his talk with Alex Peake of JCA Media in Louisville, Kentucky about the new sound system installation for Campbellsville University’s Finley Stadium. Alex provides details on the installation of the sound for the presidential suite and he outlines the music playback and testing of the sound system featuring Danley Sound Labs speakers and an Allen & Heath QU-PAC mixing console.
FOR MORE: GO TO PART 1
Links:
- JCA Media in Louisville, Kentucky
- Danley BC412 boundary coupled sub
- Allen & Heath QU-PAC mixer
- Danley DNA 10k4 Pro amplifiers
In Kentucky, the Campbellsville University Tigers’ Finley Stadium had a sound system that had seen better days so they asked JCA Media to steer them to a new one. Alex Peake is back to finish his story on how they got the stadium sound up to speed for the home football games. That’s all right here on the SVC Podcast.
Thanks for being back with us Alex, on the SVC Podcast from JCA Media in Louisville, Kentucky and we were talking about the Campbellsville University stadium, Finley Stadium. That’s the site of all their home football games and you did it all up with new Danley speakers. I think part of this was a subwoofer. I don’t know if that would make a huge difference on the announcements but these local home games are big musical events as well.
Yep. They really crank the music at these games so one of the things that we made sure we were going to do is make sure that they had the low end capable to do what they wanted to do plus some – so plenty of headroom. So there is actually a Danley BC412 under the bleachers. It’s about 15,000-16,000 watt sub and I think we’re feeding it about 10,000. But it definitely holds its own. [Laughs] [Timestamp: 1:15]
Well, that’s great. It makes a huge difference so they can really crank it up when they all get in there for a home game.
Yep, they do. And I was there a couple of games after it was installed just making sure that everything was flowing good and doing okay. They had a full crowd of 2,000-3,000 people and I mean, it was rocking out. It was rattling those bleachers and they absolutely ate it up. They loved it. One of the reasons we partnered with Danley is we didn’t want multiple cabinets with multiple amp channels to have to run. And if we could localize everything from the center out to not have things scattered and have power alleys or different hot spots for the low end, if we could just do one that would handle it that would be great and that was kind of the perfect answer there. They didn’t quite need the BC415, the big brother to that one. That was kind of maybe a little bit overkill. But this one was enough to give them the headroom they wanted, give them the punch they wanted, give them the low end they wanted, and it took one cabinet to do it. So that was kind of why we went with that. And the BC’s kind of have a little bit of directivity to them as well, so it’s actually backed up to the press box firing outward and it works great. I know behind the press box a lot of the sound is kind of eliminated because everything is firing forward and everything has good pattern control, so that sub just was the icing on the cake for the rest of the system. [Timestamp: 2:25]
That’s probably a good thing because I think there are buildings adjacent to the stadium behind the press box side and you don’t want all the music bouncing off of that plus the fact that the fewer cabinets you have the less potential for timing problems.
Exactly, yes. We actually took everything – since the sub was in the middle and all the PA and everything comes from that center, everything is delayed back to the middle. So the outer poles are delayed back and the outer cabinets are delayed back as well, so everything comes from one point. [Timestamp: 2:53]
And so what did you give them on the originating end for music playback. What equipment went in for that?
So we changed out the old mixer and stuff that was in there to a Allen & Heath Qu-Pac. We’ve had fantastic luck with those for installations that want wireless controls with their phone, with their iPad. But they also, from the mixers themselves, they don’t really want to dive into all the craziness. They want us to take care of that beforehand and they just want a simple control. So that Q control screen on the Qu-Pac works fantastic for that. It’s simple. It squares with every channel. They zap it and turn it up or down and that’s it. So we actually did the Qu-Pac. We did two QLX-D Shure SM58 microphones and then we actually did an additional one that is a body pack for the ref. So we redid that and then there’s a Denon Media Player in there that does CD, Bluetooth, anything like that if they want to feed it that way. And then there are, I do believe, eight XLR inputs in the press box scattered across the windows so they can plug in music from anywhere, plug in a mic from anywhere that they want to and do that. But one additional requirement that we had was in Level 2 of the press box is broadcast and broadcast wanted feeds from the ref mic and the announcer mic and the music feed. So we actually took a Allen & Heath 2412 stage box and it is sitting in the amp rack which is on Level 2 right next to broadcast. And so we made one of the auxes from the Qu-Pac available to broadcast. So broadcast uses an iPad to mix their own aux coming from the Qu-Pac. So that Qu-Pac, while it looks like it’s just doing one level for the main mix, it is actually doing that mix for broadcast and it actually has a secondary mix for the president’s suite. They have two Danley Nanos in there with their own volume control. So each one of those are on their own separate aux so each one can be adjusted independently. And then there is a fourth aux that is prepared and ready to mount speakers on the front of the press box whenever they finish building a tailgating area right there. [Timestamp: 4:48]
I was going to ask you about the president’s suite in there. How many people can they get into that area?
Only about 25 to 30-ish. It is a small area and that’s why those Nanos were perfect. They wanted something discrete but something that sounded good and they wanted their own volume control, so that all tied beautifully. [Timestamp: 5:04]
And I would guess that in a town that size that you probably didn’t have a whole lot of RF coordination issues.
Not too bad. I mean, they had roughly 25-30 channels on campus but we put them all in so we were able to coordinate all those together. But yeah, not bad thank goodness. [Laughs]
We talked about the speakers before. The scheduling may not have been a problem so how long did it take for you to completely outfit the press box and get everything working right in there?
Inside the press box?
Yeah.
We actually hung the speakers and did the system tuning inside and did everything in the press box – everything – within a week. Everything from literally tearing out to putting back in, one week. And that was honestly because there was a game the next week. We were in between football games when it happened. [Timestamp: 5:44]
Yeah, I was thinking that scheduling wouldn’t be that big a problem but if you’re right in the middle of football season that would make it tight.
Yeah, and it was. What happened was they had their first home game with the old PA and hardly a word was intelligible and they were like oh, that’s got to change. So literally from that time to the next game we had to get it changed out. And we were able to do the main PA and everything inside. I think the only thing that was delayed was the actual sub because it had to be built. But everything else was literally in in a week. [Timestamp: 6:12]
How do they use the Shure mics? Do they do anything on the field or are they all just used in the press box?
They have a ref mic that does stay on the field. He’s using a QLX-D body pack. They have two 58’s; one of them they use for the announcer who lives right there in the press box and the other one they have as a secondary in case somebody uses it for the national anthem or if they have any kind of announcements that they do on the field. [Timestamp: 6:33]
So maybe it was a good thing that they had to do the first game with the old system so it was still fresh in their minds how bad it sounded before.
[Laughs] Yeah. It was night and day, that’s for sure.
Your people were very familiar with this place and they already knew you so how was it dealing with your old alma mater?
It was good. They were great to work with and still are. We actually have four or five projects going with them right now and they were just beyond elated when they heard it. It was huge. You know, we’ve been doing projects for Campbellsville for quite some time, but that was the timeframe where, as far as athletics goes, they were like yep, it’s going to be Danley at every location and you’re going to do it. So we’ve changed out softball and baseball since and some July 1 basketball, wrestling and volleyball will all have their own Danley PA and Allen & Heath Qu-Pac. [Timestamp: 7:17]
You got them fixed for football so what other projects have you got coming up for JCA Media other than those?
So as far as other upcoming projects we have – just as far as Campbellsville or in general?
In general for the company. You said that you do a lot of churches. I thought maybe you have something coming up with those?
Yeah, yeah. So we actually have a church that is possibly getting ready to – well, coincidental enough actually get a Danley PA. They’re going to do mostly likely two SH96HO cabinets and BC415 for their sub. We just completed – literally I got my inspection sticker this morning – for Stephen Foster Amphitheater in Bardstown, which is a large 800+seat amphitheater, and they just redid their entire stage area. And that was actually Danley SH96HOs for that installation as well, as well as a whole slew of Danley Nanos and GO2s. That was a big one and actually they are using a Allen & Heath dLive C3500 with, gosh, 24 QLX-D body packs, and IP8 controller, and everything is networked together so they can see all their battery life and everything on the console. But anyway, that’s a big one. And the university we’re doing their wellness center, so we’re putting a PA in there. Projection – they’re doing a small juice bar that will have a distributed system. And then like I said come July we have those systems we’re going to do in there. And each one of those is actually getting a video system as well. They’re getting their own SDI and com ports around the room for cameras and things of that sort. But yeah, all kinds of stuff. We don’t have any plans of slowing down any time soon. [Timestamp: 8:45]
That sounds like a lot for a pretty small company. Do you ever have to bring in extra people or do you manage to handle all of this on your own?
[Laughs] We do every now and then. We have a couple of guys – it’s actually some of the AV guys from CU. Whenever they slow down they come with us to help. But it really is, honestly, three of us – or four. It is me, it is Robert Bender, who is another of my install techs, John-Mark Clark, who is our light designer – and he’s another install tech as well – and then we have Amy Cottrell who is the CEO. We call her the boss lady. So it’s really just a four and honestly right now we are go, go, go, 8:00-5:00 every day. But yeah, every now and then we do have to pull in a couple of hands to pull wire and things like that. Stephen Foster was a good example. We had to pull every one of the inputs, speaker line and mic line like 450 feet down each side of the amphitheater. So we had a big wire pulling day. If you count the pairs we did about eight miles of wire that day. Yeah, so anyway, every now and then we have to pull some more people, but right now we are rolling. [Laughs] We can get above water right now. [Timestamp: 9:45]
Sounds like it and that’s a good way to be.
That’s right.
You have to plan everything very carefully so that you can cover what you’ve got to do with the people you have. It’s been good getting into how you outfitted Campbellsville University’s Finley Stadium. This has been Alex Peake with JCA Media out of Louisville, Kentucky. Danley speakers, Allen & Heath mixer and Shure mics. How can you go wrong with all that? You got them ready to go.
Yes, sir.
Alright. Good having you.
Thank you.
So now the Campbellsville University Tigers have the sound they need for all of their home games. JCA Media got them back on track with the right gear and the right solution. Next week we’ll have another AV installation story straight from the source so get right back with us then for the SVC Podcast.
