Harman's JBL Professional CBT Column Loudspeakers Enable Firetron to Do More with Less at Traylor StadiumHome to the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District High School football team in Rosenberg, Texas, Guy K. Traylor Stadium is a 12,000-seat multipurpose venue. Seeking to upgrade its audio reinforcement system, the district called upon systems integration firm Firetron of Stafford, Texas, to install a unique new system highlighted by Harman's JBL CBT Series column loudspeakers. The previous system at Guy K. Traylor Stadium consisted of loudspeakers arranged at the end zones of the field -- a setup that Richard Phillips, sales engineer for Firetron, saw as insufficient for the stadium's needs. "I strive to bring the loudspeakers as close to the audience as possible to get maximum fidelity," he said. "The stadium had an end zone system and it only lasted six years. As a general rule, I feel that distributed systems usually work better than end zone systems, so we developed a distributed concept utilizing CBT column loudspeakers." Firetron designed and installed a system featuring four JBL CBT 200LA-1 column loudspeakers on each long side of the stadium -- four behind the home team stands and four behind the visiting team stands. The system is powered with Crown IT6000 amplifiers with BSS BLU-100 processing. "The wide coverage of the CBT's enabled us to achieve high-impact sound and even dispersion with relatively few loudspeakers," Phillips added. "The system is also broken into two discrete parts -- one on the home team side and the other on the visiting team side -- so each side can operate autonomously." At 6'6" tall with 32 drivers, the CBT 200LA-1 provides consistent pattern control over a wider bandwidth than is possible with shorter columns or fewer drivers. Vertical pattern coverage is adjustable to either 15- or 30-degrees to match the architectural characteristics of a wide variety of venues, and a variety of mounting heights. In addition, an innovative asymmetrical progressive-gradient coverage mode can be selected, directing more sound toward the far areas of the listening space to help reduce variation in SPL levels from front to back throughout the area. "It's the first time I've installed the CBT speakers and the project turned out great," Phillips noted. "The school district is very happy with the quality of the sound and the system is very easy for them to operate." 
|
