Cowichan Aquatic Centre – Aug 2019

In August of 2019, Sound Solutions was awarded the sound system installation at the Cowichan Aquatic Centre. The installation consisted of two portions of the installation – one being the replacement of the main pool sound system with the fitness areas being done in 2020. A sound system was desired that had the capacity to deal with multiple zones of audio, with 10 speaker zones in the natatorium itself, plus additional zones for the expansion in 2020.

The existing speaker cluster gave limited coverage throughout the pool area

While the original specification read that the existing Biamp digital signal processor be reused, we demonstrated that a more cost effective solution would be attained by changing over to a QSC Core 110f with associated touch screens, instead of installing a separate touch screen controller to control the Biamp system.

The wiring of the existing rack left a lot to be desired!

The installation was not without its challenges:

-There was no ground level load-in for the boom lift to access the speakers which were 32’ above ground level. Instead, a crane service had to be used to bring the lift up a flight of steps outside the building to drive it onto the pool deck.

-24 hours before the lift was to be delivered, the lift company called saying they did not have one available. They substituted a smaller lift, requiring us to bring in an independent rigger to climb through the trussing to install 9 speakers that the lift was unable to access.-FedEx delayed the speaker delivery past the scheduled delivery time, causing us to drive to Everett, Wa to pick up the pallet of speakers.

-An uneven pool deck caused the boom lift to hang up several times while moving it over the pool deck.

Prepping the new Community speakers with mounting hardware and seismic restraints

Despite the challenges, Sound Solutions was able to install and commission the sound system ahead of schedule, and training was done on Sept 6, with the pool opening to the general public on Sept 9.

The system was the most elaborate sound system we’ve ever designed and installed for a pool. 22 Community R.35 speakers were hung over the lap and leisure pools, as well as the walkways around the two pools, allowing multiple aquacize classes to be held at the same time. The two touch screens give a clear visual representation of which speaker zones are on and off, and each of the 12 microphone and music sources can be routed to any zone(s) selected.

Two Evo wireless mic headset systems on separate channels were installed, along with a Tascam CD/MP3/Bluetooth unit. A paging mic mutes the sound system in all areas for emergency paging, with normal use of the sound system resuming when the paging mic button is released.

 

 

Rigging the speakers over the pool surface

floating the Community speaker to the deep end of the pool to be hoisted 30’ in the air

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two four and eight channel QSC MA series power the Community speakers, and the existing rack and surge protectors were reused from the original sound system, although the wiring was cleaned up and neatly labeled

Several unique methods were used to get the speakers to the truss, including sending the speakers out into the pool on a floatation device, where the rigger then pulled the speakers into place via rope.

Future expansion will utilize more QSC power amps and speakers, along with a QSC I/0-8 Flex to expand upon the existing inputs and outputs of the current QSC Core 110f unit.

 

The QSC touch screen showing all speaker zones turned on

The QSC touch screen showing several speaker zones turned off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       The new sound system rack

Skills

Posted on

September 7, 2019