Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School was built as part of a Depression-era pubic works program in 1941 and owns the rare distinction of being named for a sitting President. Today, the school serves 1,550 students in Hyde Park, NY, FDR’s hometown.
- Although the original high school building is in the National Register of Historic Places, growth prompted the construction of a larger building long ago, and the school continues to maintain up-to-date facilities. When its athletic field aged beyond useful repair, the school board ordered it razed. Built on the same land, FDR’s new athletic stadium boasts a cutting-edge sound reinforcement system, with power and digital signal processing both provided by the high-efficiency, cost-effective Ashly nXp3.04 high-output power amplifier with on-board Protea processor.
- Dominick Campana, owner at Pro Sound Associates (Guilderland, New York), led the system’s design and installation, and Live Sound, Inc. (Troy, New York) served as the sound system vendor.
- “There were several challenges associated with FDR’s new athletic stadium,” explained Campana. “First, we had to provide ample power to four zones over 300-feet of speaker wire – from the head end to the scoreboard. Second, we had to provide flexible and accurate DSP for fine- tuning, system protection, and multiple I/O routing. Third, we only had a short window between system installation and the first football game when we could commission the system. Finally – and this made all the other challenges that much harder – we only had a limited rack space beneath a stairway in the press box and single 20-amp circuit for the entire system. Based on my positive experience with Ashly amplifiers and processors, I suspected that their new nXp3.04 four-channel 3000-watt amplifier with internal DSP would help us overcome all of those challenges.”
- Inputs to the system include four Shure ULX-series wireless microphones, three hardwired microphone jacks, and a Tascam CD-200i combination, aux in, iPod, and CD player. They feed a Shure SCM810 9x1 automixer, which in turn feeds the Ashly nXp3.04. The Ashly nXp3.04 is a lightweight, energy-efficient Class D switching amplifier with four 3000-watt channels and an integrated 4x4 Protea DSP. Three of its amplifier channels power three Community R2 loudspeakers at the scoreboard. The final amplifier channel powers a pair of Community DS5 surface-mount loudspeakers in the press box. Additional aux outputs from the nXp3.04’s DSP section feed a Listen Technologies assistive listening system.
- “As with all Ashly networkable devices, connecting to and accessing the nXp3.04’s DSP was instantaneous,” said Campana. “Because I have considerable experience with the Ashly ne-Series of DSPs, the layout and workflow of the nXp DSP was pleasingly familiar. The Community R2's like to see a lot of power, and I knew the nXp3.04 would be able to deliver with a maximum output of 3,000 watts at 2 ohms per channel. Not only was there power to spare, 2000 watts per channel @ 4 ohms, but the nXp3.04 performed at full throttle with only a minimal amperage draw. With all of its brains and brawn, I'll definitely utilize the Ashly nXp-Series for future jobs – especially at its more-than-fair price point.”
