Revelstoke Forum

The Solution

New speakers are installed and a new audio rack provides better ventilation.

In 2011 we returned to the Revelstoke Forum to do some service work and general maintenance, and we found that the original 1990s woofers had failed due to age. We recommended installing a larger metal roll-around rack to provide better ventilation to the amplifiers and source equipment.

Back in 2006, we upgraded an early 1990s-era system to replace the existing low-power amplifiers, and we installed speakers over the bleacher seating areas to supplement the modified centre cluster. Two small speakers covered the centre ice area, and the original horns and woofers were reused to keep the price down.

The delay speakers over the seating were aligned to the central cluster by a digital delay unit, and additional amplifiers were added to power the delay speakers.

We installed a new five-foot metal rack on casters, and rerouted the sound system wiring from the old rack location to a junction box. We then used split loom tubing to contain all rack wires so that the rack can be rolled around for cleaning and ease of use. We use umbilical cords like this on all of our movable rack installations, as it keeps the installation clean, and there is no risk of pinching or damaging wires when moving the rack,

We supplied a new AM/FM tuner to replace the existing one that had failed, and added an IPod dock and plug-in for MP3 players. We installed new Crest CC2800 amplifiers to drive the main speaker cluster along with a Xilica 4080 digital signal processor (DSP) to control the sound going to all of the speakers and subwoofers.

The Rolls preamplifier that we used to control the whole sound system has eight volume controls on it to select each music or microphone source. It allows arena users easy control to the whole sound system as there are no buttons to push, no wrong adjustments to make, and each control is clearly labeled.

The Xilica DSP is locked out, so that the sensitive volume limiter and equalizer functions can’t be fiddled with. The Xilica is internet controllable, so that if there is a need for Sound Solutions to look at the system, we can do so remotely to check the parameters of the sound system.

Local electricians installed more AC circuits so that the new Crest amplifiers would have plenty of power for standing room-only events. One of the easiest ways to damage a sound system is not having enough AC power for the amplifiers that can then be driven into distortion, and blown speakers and/or amplifiers can result.

The rack wiring is neatly done, the power is down the left side of the rack, the audio signals run in a wire trough down the right side. This all reduces hum and noise.

Finally, the decades-old speakers were replaced in the lobby/concourse area. Six Convex 6 two-way speakers provide much better sound quality over the original small surface mount speakers.