Earth Treks recently opened their newest training facility in Rockville, a state-of-the-art indoor facility with 44 foot walls and over 15,000 square feet of varied climbing surfaces, including overhangs and stalactites. Helping to pump climbers up for the task is a powerful audio system designed by Art Reiger at Solsound, Inc. based around several Community loudspeaker systems.
"The music really helps motivate people, and we designed the system to provide coverage throughout the venue," Reiger remarks. The system is loosely broken into six zones, with a pair of Community's CPL46 full-range three-way systems suspended from the ceiling to cover the two main climbing areas. "The CPL46's blow down between the rock formations, with a pair of CPL43 two-ways covering the two smaller cave areas," Reiger continues.
Two CPL27 full-range two-way cabinets are installed at the instructional areas, with two more in the fitness training room and another pair in the merchandise area. And a pair of Community Cloud6 ceiling speakers are installed in the locker rooms' drop ceilings. DSP for the system zoning configuration and control is provided via a dbx DriveRack unit, and a Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer covers front-end inputs. Crest amps power the system, with aJuice Goose CQ1520 handling the AC power control.
The Earth Trek folks were able to make a unique contribution toward keeping their installation budget low. "They did all the cable pulling and speaker mounting themselves," Reiger explains. "I went up on a lift to check the mounting and cable terminations, but they loved the idea of making an expedition out of the speaker hangs."
As Reiger explains, the venue's unusual acoustics presented a few unique challenges. "It was tricky to find places to hang the speakers where they'd hit the areas we wanted but be out of the way of the climbers and the chalk they use on their ropes. Community was really a great solution, both in cost-effectiveness and great sound. And they offer a wide range of products,so we were able to specify different types of speakers for different areas, with no need for crossovers or other additions which greatly assisted in meeting their budgetary requirements."
(Chris Henry)
