GCS BALLPARK UPGRADES WITH MARTIN AUDIO

St. Louis, MO––TSI Global Companies LLC recently upgraded the PA system for GCS Ballpark, home of the Gateway Grizzlies, with Martin Audio CDD-WR weatherized speakers.

Commenting on TSI's choice, General Manager Paul Murdick, who's had a longstanding relationship with the facility and Frontier League team, says: 'We looked at several manufacturers to present to the Grizzlies, and Martin Audio was our choice based on quality, intelligibility, durability and value for the investment. Plus Martin Audio support is second to none.'

'CDD-WR speakers were a logical option to replace the original system which had been exposed to the elements for over 10 years and was starting to fail. We needed everyone in the ballpark to hear and understand everything going out over the PA, which includes background music and announcements, play by play and color commentary.

'Another requirement was a system that could be easily mounted on the lighting towers so we could maximize coverage while using the existing infrastructure cabling to save the customer from having to rewire the stadium and keep the project within budget.'

Describing the actual setup, TSI Audio Systems Designer Lee Buckalew explains, 'we replaced 21 older full range speakers with 19 Martin Audio CDD8-WR speakers and supplemented the bass with two CSX112-WR subwoofers. The majority of the speakers are on very large triangle trusses for the field lights with a few mounted at the back of lower tier stands adjacent to the concession area.

'From a technical perspective, the choice of CDD was twofold: one was the differential dispersion characteristics with wide up close coverage tapering for a more constant average SPL further out. The other was CDD's exceptional output capability for size and cost. Ideally, we wanted to go with CDD-12's because it's a large outdoor space but the budget wouldn't allow it. As it turned out, the CDD-8's are giving us higher SPL than the previous system.'

'And the wider nearfield dispersion gives us very even coverage in fan areas where people are walking to their seats like the larger aisle ways. But it also allows us to maintain SPL out to the edge of the seating.

'The client's reaction has been very positive in terms of the tremendous improvement in overall sound quality, frequency response and clarity for announcements. The coherence and speech intelligibility are also significantly better.'

Summing up, Lee concludes, 'We're using CDD in a number of locations such as casinos, high schools and collegiate sports facilities because we're typically able to deploy fewer speakers, CDD pricing is very competitive and it came out as an entire range which is helpful as well.'

Paul adds, 'The client is very pleased, they achieved all of their goals in terms of budget and quality, and CDD is definitely far superior to the older system.'