I work at a ski resort with a full length (2 mile long) downhill course that we are looking to install a PA system on in the near future, and I'm looking for some design help. The idea would be to have an announcer on the deck at the base lodge, with speakers for the audience at the bottom as well as speakers at various stations along the course.
I'm thinking the best strategy would be to have powered speakers mounted on trees for the on-course stations, although it may not be easy to find 120v power everywhere we need it. The speakers will need to be sturdy enough to withstand the rain, snow, ice, and low temperatures of a ski hill.
The other issue is the audio wiring in the base area. It will be easy to run wire in conduit through the trees on course, but trenching wire from the finish area into the lodge (there's a golf course in the way) will probably be difficult and costly. I was looking at something like the alto stealth wireless system to cover this area wirelessly. Good idea?
If anybody has experience designing or building something like this I'd greatly appreciate any advice.
I'm thinking the best strategy would be to have powered speakers mounted on trees for the on-course stations, although it may not be easy to find 120v power everywhere we need it. The speakers will need to be sturdy enough to withstand the rain, snow, ice, and low temperatures of a ski hill.
The other issue is the audio wiring in the base area. It will be easy to run wire in conduit through the trees on course, but trenching wire from the finish area into the lodge (there's a golf course in the way) will probably be difficult and costly. I was looking at something like the alto stealth wireless system to cover this area wirelessly. Good idea?
If anybody has experience designing or building something like this I'd greatly appreciate any advice.
The standard way of accomplishing this is 100V line system.
I suggest you google this first.
Constant-voltage speaker system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.crownaudio.com/media/pdf/amps/138905-1_10-05_constant_voltage.pdf
Dan.
I suggest you google this first.
Constant-voltage speaker system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.crownaudio.com/media/pdf/amps/138905-1_10-05_constant_voltage.pdf
Dan.
can you give us a better idea of the terrain layout or a diagram of the offending golf course and main buildings.
and rather than running conduit for signal lines up and down the hill and such yes i'd look at a multiplex fm transmitter to supply my course deployed powered speakers (the difference in material and labour cost plus not having dig up the golf course justifies the cost) this makes time aligning the delay stacks a little easier. two miles of distance to cover can turn a mass of bad echo's without due consideration to time alignment.
when it comes to weather proof gear Community and TOA have some good product at reasonable price point.
on the other end of the scale is stuff like NEAR.
what kind of budget have you got (i could stand making a few schekels "consulting!) getting this right will require 5 digit budget figures...
and rather than running conduit for signal lines up and down the hill and such yes i'd look at a multiplex fm transmitter to supply my course deployed powered speakers (the difference in material and labour cost plus not having dig up the golf course justifies the cost) this makes time aligning the delay stacks a little easier. two miles of distance to cover can turn a mass of bad echo's without due consideration to time alignment.
when it comes to weather proof gear Community and TOA have some good product at reasonable price point.
on the other end of the scale is stuff like NEAR.
what kind of budget have you got (i could stand making a few schekels "consulting!) getting this right will require 5 digit budget figures...
Second the 100V distribution system. Voice range hron speakers ar very efficient, so that you don't need all that much power at each point.
If you have mains power at all points, a wireless system will be fairly easy to build, but it will certanly be a LOT more expensive.
If you have mains power at all points, a wireless system will be fairly easy to build, but it will certanly be a LOT more expensive.
Thanks a lot for the info on the 100v distributed system, that looks promising.
I don't have access to a diagram at the moment, but the hold course occupies about 200 yds between the bottom of the slope and the base lodge. It will probably take years to convince the golf guys to let us dig through there.
I was hoping to avoid too many delay problems as we're not really looking to have sound coverage on the entire course, just some stations in critical areas where people stand
I don't have access to a diagram at the moment, but the hold course occupies about 200 yds between the bottom of the slope and the base lodge. It will probably take years to convince the golf guys to let us dig through there.
I was hoping to avoid too many delay problems as we're not really looking to have sound coverage on the entire course, just some stations in critical areas where people stand
If you have mains on both sides, and a shack to house a remote 100V amp, a single wireless hop may solve the problem. I do that with both audio and video on some field operations we do, where cables are impossible. I use both studio in-ear monitor T/R's, as well as wireless A/V links, but with high gain antennas.......
I like the idea of housing the amp in a remote shack... We have a timing shack parked at the finish during race season that we could mount an antenna on, and we wouldn't have any problems trenching the 100v line to a permanent pedestal near the shack.
I'm thinking we may need more than 100v to cover the 2 mile distance to the start? We also have a powered snowmaking shack near the halfway point of the course that could possibly house another amp.
Thanks for all the help... and we can always talk lift tickets!
I'm thinking we may need more than 100v to cover the 2 mile distance to the start? We also have a powered snowmaking shack near the halfway point of the course that could possibly house another amp.
Thanks for all the help... and we can always talk lift tickets!
2 miles is indeed a long stretch..... splitting the circuit in two, - at least, should give acceptable results. One transmitter and a couple of receivers should solve the problem. Do use frequencies that is protected from shared service. I use a commercial system for concert in-ear monitoring for very much the same problem. Some proper cabling is probably due, - I'd say at .75 to 1 mm2, and reasonably efficient horn speakers. If you haven't tried, you'd be amazed how much sound there is in the beam of even a 5W efficient horn.....you may have to tap the last horns one step higher than the first ones. Systems like this have been made for announcement PA fed on telephone cables over at least a couple of miles....
well if you want to go on the cheap how much 70v line are you gonna have to lay still think FM is the way to go but what do i know...
With 8-10 speakers pr mile, that adds up to 16-20 active speakers, as opposed to 2 amps an as many fairly cheap horn speakers as necesseary...... add receivers to taste..
Weather proofing is just another issue..... so to each his own... 🙂
Weather proofing is just another issue..... so to each his own... 🙂
We just came back from skiing at Vail (last week of the season). Skiing down a 2 mile Black Diamond run is a long trip. Installing AC power or speaker cables or even interconnects would be a expensive challenge. I would use some portable generator or battery powered amps and the spectator areas and link them with RF audio. The next month you could use the same equipment for other types of events.
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