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| 6/11/2008 - MUSKOGEE CONVENTION CENTER BOSE SOUND SYSTEM |
Muskogee is the cultural center of eastern Oklahoma. It has a rich heritage dating back to the early 1800s when President Thomas Jefferson recommended that a trading post be set up near what is now Muskogee. From fur trading days to capital of the Indian Territory to a military outpost, Muskogee has seen a wide variety of cultures come together that produced an atmosphere of harmony that has attracted folks from all over the world to live and visit this unique city. One of the most memorable and famous of it's visitors was county music legend Merle Haggard, who in 1969, came to Muskogee to record an album and wrote the song, "Okie From Muskogee". So when the City of Muskogee decided to renovate it's largest and very out of date event center, the Muskogee Civic Center, the city turned to High-Tech-Tronics and Bose for help with the sound system portion of this renovation.
High-Tech-Tronics is an audio/video and low voltage systems contractor and a Pro Bose Dealer from Oklahoma City. Upon learning the Muskogee Civic Center was being renovated, the folks at High-Tech-Tronics knew the Bose Panaray LT series would be perfect for this venue. They immediately put a plan together and presented it to the civic center renovation committee. Being very impressed with the Bose products and the plan, the City of Muskogee tasked High-Tech-Tronics to write a sound system specification that would feature The Bose Panaray LT series speakers and Bose Control Space digital sound processor.
The customer wanted a system that would be very intelligible at low volumes during a high school play with only a few hundred in attendance, but be just as intelligible at high volumes during a basketball game with the arena filled to capacity. None of the previous sound systems provided anywhere near intelligible sound. They also wanted to be able to host concerts by local and regional country, bluegrass and rock-n-roll bands utilizing the house system. A host of other major events such as the Shrine Circus, Professional Ultimate Fighting and boxing matches, job fairs, Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Induction, and a myriad of local and regional cultural events would utilize the civic center, each bringing its unique requirements to the civic center that must be met.
Challenges - Even though acoustical improvements were being made, the arena was still somewhat reverberant. The speaker system must keep direct sound and reflections off of the vertical surfaces as much as possible. The very tight dispersion patterns of the Panaray LT series made this job much easier.
Also there would be times the system would need to be operated without the sound booth being manned. The customer also wanted paging and background music in the hallways and meeting rooms as well where paging from the office must be available in the arena as well. Arena sound must be available in the halls, meeting rooms and outside as well. The Bose Control Space digital audio processor and CC-64/CC-16 control interfaces would make this requirement a breeze. What was expected to be a huge hurdle, the budget, was easily overcome because of the affordability of all the Bose products utilized.
Meeting customer requirements - The first task was to model the arena using Bose Moder 6.0. The civic center arena has a huge theatrical stage at one end with 2300 fixed seats in a horseshoe shape around a large rectangular floor that can seat 1000 or so more in folding chairs. Modeler showed that a cluster of three LT 3202s and three LT 4402s would cover the floor and all the seats except the top seven rows. The top rows of seats would be covered by a delay ring of seven LT 9400s. The low frequencies would be handled by two bass arrays consisting of two MB24s each suspended above the cluster of LT 3202s and 4402s. The Modeler file was sent to Bose engineer, Stephen Payton, for his input. After a few tweaks from Stephen, Modeler showed this configuration would evenly cover the entire arena and produce a max SPL of 105db. The average STI would be an amazing 6.75 throughout the arena.
Of the thirty microphone inputs, eight (four on each side of the arena floor) would be dual-homed to the sound booth patch panel and to the Control Space input. This would provide input into the system without anyone being in the sound booth. A CC-64, control interface, on each side of the arena plus one in the sound booth will be configured to provide control of these and other inputs for a variety of situations. Parameter sets will be set up and recalled by the CC-64 depending on the needs of the customer.
For the background music and paging, a CC-16 in the main office will control its function, input and volume. All three of the CC-64s can control this function as well. A total of one hundred and four Bose Model 16 ceiling speakers would handle the hallways and meeting rooms very nicely. For outside, and output from the Control Space will drive an amplifier to which speakers can be connected from jacks mounted on the front outside wall of the civic center. There is a mic jack outside as well. These functions are controlled from the office CC-16 or any of the CC-64s.
All of these requirements and more were put into a very detailed system specification and provided to the City of Muskogee. Upon review, the City of Muskogee contracted with High-Tech-Tronics to install the system as specified.
Once installed, a demonstration was given to the renovation committee. Members talked on wireless mics as others walked around the arena. All were astonished at how clear the the system sounded. A variety of music was played on CD. Members commented that it sounded like they were listening to and expensive home stereo in their living room. Then the members were treated to just how loud the system would get. One member said he didn't know we were getting a concert level sound system as well. Others were amazed that even at levels over 108db, the music was still crystal clear.
Many events have been held at the Muskogee Civic Center since the renovation. In every instance, those sponsoring the event have commented on how amazingly clear the system sounded and how easy it was to operate.
List of Equipment
Qty Model # Description
4 MB24 12 in. Dual Subwoofer, Bass Array
3 LT 3202 30 X 20 2-way Mid-High Stadium Speaker System. Main Cluster
3 LT 4402 40 X 40 2-way Mid-High Stadium Speaker System, Main Cluster
7 LT 9400 90 X 40 2-way Mid-High Speaker System, Upper Delay Ring
1 ESP-88 Control Space digital audio processor
1 37535 Control Space Processor Expansion Card
2 37533 Control Space 4 X 4 Mic/Line In/Out Card
3 CC-64 User Interface Control Center
1 CC-16 User Interface Zone Controller
104 029383 Model 16 Ceiling Speaker
18 029830 Tile Bridge
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