Hey guys, I have a few questions. I work at a roller skating rink and was talking to the boss about putting a new sound system in for our DJ skating sessions. My thoughts are to place a hwk at each end of the oval shaped rink for subs with two flown 3ways for mid/highs above them. Just curious bout the dispertion characteristics of the hwk, with one at each end I am hoping to achieve an even coverage, what do you guys think? and also recommendations for drivers? they will probably be crossed at around 80-90Hz maybe bit lower, and wont need to go any lower than about 25-30Hz. They need to be Loud and Tight with good dispersion.
Any opinions would be appreciated.
Cheers
David

I'd vote for the Imperial too, but...

If this roller rink has the same type of acoustics that I've experienced in every ice rink I've ever been in, your biggest problem is going to be taming the echo and boom rather than what type of speaker enclosure to use.  From your post, it sounds like you have a system now that you use at fairly high volume.  What is it and how does it sound?  Is the bass too boomy and thats why you are thinking of upgrading?

If you place a sub at each end of the rink you are going to get phase issues as you move around the rink.  If the time it takes for the sound from speaker A to get to a listener is 1/2 wavelength (of the note being played) longer or shorter than time it takes for the sound from speaker B to get to a listener then the 2 waveforms will cancel and the volume will be substantially reduced.  Likewise, if the time is the same or off by 1 wavelength  the 2 waveforms will add and the volume will noticeably increase.  To start off, I'd try all subs in the same place.  If that is unacceptable, more than 2 subs might be your only option so you can place them around the rink and basically guarantee that you will never be perfectly in phase or out of phase.

If it were me, I'd beg/borrow/steal something (anything), set it up where you think you want it, and listen to it.  Then work on the acoustics of the room until this setup sounds good (or at least ok).  Then maybe think about different speakers...

I've also got a couple of Imperials available, but looking at your email address, it looks like you are in Australia...shipping from Minnesota would be interesting  :)

Dan

Has anybody got any opinions to offer?
I just want to make sure this is going to be a suitable enclosure for the intended application. Any help is appreciated
David

The issue I have is not to do with the physical size of the enclosure, it is more to do with its output method. To elaborate, my plan is to mount a Hwk to the outside of the rink barrier at each end, and then by changing the top port to face the same direction as the bottom ports, I will cut holes of the same size in the rink barrier. The reason for this is that the rink walls are approx 2 meters high, half plastic and half plexi glass. So this means that the only place suitable for an imperial is flown 2 meters high, which is not aesthetically practical.
However 3 small holes cut into the lower (plastic) half of the rink barrier would be suitable. So the only thing I need to know is if this design will have the correct output and dispersion characteristics to suit this application. Also ideas on the best driver to achieve this.
All help is very much appreciated.
David