Nike's Elite Club National League Scores Big With Grund Audio

Part of the U.S. Soccer organization, the Elite Club National League (ECNL) is the premier women's traveling soccer league. During the weekend of July 14 -- 17, the league held its National Championship. Sponsored by Nike, the event was televised on ESPN. The audio included line array system consisting of models from the Grund Audio Design catalog.

Denver-based Summit Group Event Services, a full-scale production and staging house that handles corporate events, conventions, and concert touring, was contracted to provide live sound reinforcement for this year's championship event. Owned and operated by Paul Kocel, the Summit Group Event Services crew deployed a robust, compact line array system consisting of Grund Audio Design GALA Series GA-1021Z mid-high line array elements in conjunction with Grund Audio's GA-L15 subwoofers. Kocel discussed the equipment selection.

"For this year's event," Kocel explained, "we deployed three Grund Audio GA-1021Z enclosures per side atop two GA-L15 subwoofers. I typically refer to this setup as our 'small' corporate rig. We ground stack this setup on custom made carts where the subs are positioned upside down on their fly frames and mounted to the dolly. We set three GA-1021Zs on top of the two subs, adjust the angles and, at that point, we're ready to do the show. Since the left and right stacks are both on wheels, it's very easy to position the system. This is a really quick setup with a surprisingly compact profile that delivers a very robust sound.

"Vocal clarity is paramount for events like this," Kocel said. "We simply cannot find another rig that reproduces a natural, clear vocal tone as found in the GA-1021Zs anywhere near the price point. Further, the enclosure's compact size enables us to assemble a rig that doesn't visually detract from what's truly important -- in this case, the players and the presentation of the awards.

"I'm equally impressed with our GA-L15 subwoofers," Kocel continued. In some case -- such as this project -- the lo-mid fundamentals need support when traditional subs would be too much. This is where the GA-L15's really shine. With a single 15" woofer in each of the two enclosures, they round out the low frequencies without overpowering the rest of the system. For corporate events, it's all about balance."

In addition to providing a high level of speech intelligibility out on the field, Kocel was equally complimentary of the equipment's build quality. "The weather was an absolute nightmare," Kocel explained. "In addition to rain, it was extremely windy at times. Over two dozen canopies were lost at this event and even Nike's tent -- held down by multiple 55 gallon barrels filled with water-- was destroyed. The covers for the Grund GA-1021Z system were pulled off one night, but the specially designed Grund speaker grilles didn't let a drop of water onto the cones. Any other company's product would have been destroyed with the weather we endured over those four days.

"For an event of this size with the limited budget involved, we could not have managed to fulfill the contract without the GA-1021Z system," Kocel concluded. "A larger rig would have been distracting and a small point source system would not have covered the area. Similarly, the weather would have ruined a lot of other loudspeaker products. We're at a place in our business where we could buy one of the 'big name' systems, but the reality is striking. Our niche market would not give us any more business, bring in any more revenue, or increase our client list. All that would accomplish would be to create a debt to income ratio that would prohibit us from doing the type of work we do. All in all, nothing comes through like a Grund."