St Thomas Fieldhouse

The St Thomas Fieldhouse is a large reflective room with a (realtively) low ceiling. To get good sound coverage over such a large space and still provide even coverage and good quality sound, a large number of components were needed. The Fieldhouse uses a distrbuted sound system. That is a system were the sound comes from many sources at the same time.

Twenty four Bose 9400 LT speakers were used. They were mounted in the ceiling trusses in a geometric pattern that allows the speakers to cover the entire floor (track) with a very even level of sound.

Six Bose MB-12 bass speakers are also mounted in the truss system. Since bass is omnidirectional and contributes less to intelligibility, fewer cabinets were needed.

Fifteen crown CTs amplifiers with a combined output of 20,000 watts drives this system to the desired sound level.Thirty amplifier channels allows each speakers power level to be individually controlled.

Nine power sequencers provide power to this system in a equence that prevents power surges and equipment damage.

Thirty Two inputs to the sound system were provided by two Bose Controlspace ESP 88 processors.The DSP processing has many functions including delay, equaliztion and feedback control. It also provides the six reconfigurable ouput zones.

The speaker locations can be seen in the circle on the picture to the left. The MB-12LTs were painted white.

The BOSE LT 9400 models is a 2-way, mid/high-frequency loudspeaker is designed for use with additional low-frequency loudspeakers to form point-source arrays in small to medium permanent installations requiring precise coverage and high intelligibility. The LT 9400 provides a nominal 90° x 40° pattern.

BOSE 9400 LT

The MB12 LT low-frequency loudspeaker is designed to provide bass augmentation in the 40 to 280 Hz range. It utilizes a proprietary tapered-transmission-line design to reduce resonant peaks in frequency response, while reducing port-turbulence distortion. It has a single 12-inch high-excursion woofer.
	BOSE MB-12 LT

All of this electronic equipment filled up two large metal racks.

The rack on the left houses the Fifteen Crown amplifiers. The power sequnecers are interspersed amoung the amplifiers that they control.

The equipment rack on the right hold the control electronics for the sound system.

A single power sequencer energizesa router and data manager. A traditional manual patch bay is wired into this system.

A Bose Controlspace CC 64 is mounted in this rack to provide local control.

A TEAC broadcast quality professional CD player is provided.

Two Bose Controlspace ESP 88 are located near the bottom. Inputs for wireless mics, the CD player, an ipod and the soundboard are routed to these units.

A Shure dual wireless receivers is at the bottom of the rack. A wireless hand held mic and headset mic were supplied for this system.