It never sounded so good – the theme music of 2001: A Space Odyssey, is always played when the university home team, the South Carolina Gamecocks, takes the field in the 80,000-plus capacity Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, SC. It now rings out with renewed power and clarity thanks to a brand new audio system comprising 17 Lab.gruppen C Series amplifiers driving a new EAW KF 900 Series end-zone cluster.
The new audio system was designed and installed by a locally based company, ACS Sound and Lighting of Columbia. According to General Manager Troy Gwin Lab.gruppen’s C Series were specified based on overall performance, power density, and remote monitoring capability. “We were already in the process of changing out many of the amps in our rental systems for Lab.gruppens, since we really like the way they sound and their reputation for reliability,” commented Gwin. “But in the end, we really didn’t have much choice for the stadium system. There weren’t that many amplifiers that could fit all the power and channels we needed into one 44-space rack – which is all we had room for.”
Gwin explained that, in order to provide digital steering, the KF900 system requires that nearly every driver be powered separately. “In that one rack we had to fit 68 channels of high-power amplification along with a network bridge and seven EAW UX8800 processors. After factoring in the quality and reliability benchmarks, that pretty much dictated a C Series solution.”
The system’s eleven C 48:4 amplifiers (4 × 1200 W) are assigned to mid- and high-frequency drivers of the new main point-source system, as well as several full-range EAW cabinets (and two EV speakers from the previous system) used for various fill applications. The six C 68:4 (4 × 1700 W) models power the eight dedicated low-frequency boxes and the twelve bent-horn subwoofers.
Since each C Series unit occupies 2U of rack space, and with eight more spaces taken by the processors and network bridge (terminating a link from the control booth), only two rack spaces remained: one spare, and one for the Lab.gruppen NLB 60E NomadLink network bridge. “The NomadLink computer monitoring was another key selling point, because the amplifiers are in a separate building a long walk from the control booth,” pointed out Gwin. “Operators will push the system, so monitoring is crucial. In fact, before last year, they always had a tech with a cell phone sitting in the amp room, watching the front panel indictors for trouble. Now they have detailed amplifier status displayed on a computer screen in the booth.”
South Carolina’s feisty Gamecocks, battling in the brutally competitive Southeastern Conference, pushed themselves to the limit in carving out a winning 7-6 record for 2008. Some players ended their season on injured reserves. The Lab.gruppen amplifiers were pushed hard as well, but each completed the season with no interruption in reliable service.