Sound Solutions for Sports Facilities
Sound in a Sports Facility
Project: Temple Park Centre
Installer: Blaydon Communications Ltd
Regular gym goers will often use personal audio systems to create playlists for motivation but sports facilities also need to have their own sound system to provide an ambience that adds to the experience and delivers in group activities. You don’t want to go and be bombarded with the sound of silence; where’s the motivation in that! Equally you don’t want to be walking into a full-on rave and staff have to cater to the needs of everyone.
We catch up with Blaydon Communications Ltd to hear about their recent project at Temple Park Centre for South Tyneside Council and what solutions and design they provided for this sports facility which was perfect for the needs of the venue whilst being cost effective.
The brief for the system was quite simple. They needed a sound solution that was easy to use, could deal with a range of audio levels to cater for quiet and busy times, looked good, and didn’t cost the earth.
Operation is particularly important for these kind of facilities as training staff tend to cover a multitude of venues when delivering classes so having a system that is familiar and easy to use is an important factor.
As with all projects, a site survey was completed to make sure the needs of the client were fully understood. It enabled the team to get a good understanding of the space to make sure that loudspeaker selection would result in a quality of audio that would make fitness enthusiasts want to be regular visitors.
The site visit was carried out by Blaydon’s Managing Director, Paul Dougherty.
“We understand the requirements of most gyms thanks to our experience in this sector. There are some gyms you walk into and instantly know that chest compressing bass is what’s needed but this one was a bit different. The users ranged from teenagers to pensioners and the sound system needed to reflect this. There was restricted space and low ceilings to consider so the first thing that come to mind was the TOA BS-1030W cabinet speaker or the universal loudspeaker as it’s known.”
The resulting proposal included a total of nine BS-1030W’s strategically positioned to give a nice even coverage to every gym user without overpowering any single area. All cabling was concealed above the suspended ceiling to give the best aesthetic result. All the loudspeakers were hooked up to a TOA A-2240DD amplifier which gave more than enough power to the loudspeakers for any level of music. In fact, the customer asked for it to be turned down which is always a simple fix! A nice audio streaming unit was provided for the source music which runs a bespoke schedule to determine music type based on the time of day.
Ian Bridgwater, Director and Technical Sales Manager at TOA Corporation (UK) Ltd
“At TOA we are proud of the wide range of products that we develop to meet the ever-changing needs of applications that require sound. This enables us to work with installers on their projects providing the best advice and technical expertise to their engineers delivering audio solutions to sports facilities, transport hubs, retail outlets, offices and more.”
The final word comes from Paul Dougherty
“We’re always confident when installing the TOA brand. The audio quality is superb, and they look as good as they sound. The robustness of their products gives a great return on investment for the client and helps us prove time and time again that we are a provider of fantastic sound systems!”
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