Broadview Farms, near Hope, Maine, is the home of “Horses with Hope,” an organization whose mission is to rescue and rehabilitate abused, neglected and abandoned horses and match them with compatible homes.
- In 2013, Horses with Hope completed a spacious new venue at Broadview Farms with an indoor riding arena, a viewing area, horse stalls and living quarters for staff and visitors.
- Designed and built by “Houses and Barns by John Libby”, the facility includes an audio system designed to recreate the sounds from a commercial venue, such as a riding tournament, and to play music and provide communication for horse training.
- General contractor Houses and Barns by John Libby retained AV Systems of Maine of Bowdoinham, ME, to design and install the audio system. Owner Bill Wayman chose Community R-Series loudspeakers for the arena and Community D-Series ceiling loudspeakers for the viewing area, offices and other spaces.
- “The arena is open to the outside,” said Wayman, “so I wanted loudspeakers that sounded good and could deal with the temperature and humidity extremes we have in Maine.”
- Wayman designed an array for the arena with four Community R1-94TZ loudspeakers equipped with 200-watt auto-transformers. He used a single R.5-99TZ for down-fill. For the viewing area, offices and other spaces, Wayman designed a 70-volt distributed system with six pairs of Community model D6 ceiling loudspeakers.
- The audio system uses an Ashly 8-channel power amplifier and an Ashly controller/processor. Wayman provided two wireless headset microphones to allow the riders and trainers to talk to visitors in the viewing areas. Trainers also use these microphones to communicate with riders. Users can select microphones, music or natural background sounds and control the system volume from a wall panel in each zone.
- Wayman says the owners are very pleased with the sound quality and coverage of the audio system. “They agreed to have me install two additional zones after hearing the arena system,” he said.
