Homewood-Flossmoor is a thriving school district on the south side of Chicago. The school is diverse and active, and hosts a successful swim and dive program. Unfortunately, the school’s pool was worn down, dimly lit, and lacked a good sound system.
As part of a facilities improvement effort, DLA architects of Chicago brought in Hamilton AV Design to design a new sound system for the space. The need was clearly evident. The existing system was around 20 years old and the corrosive elements of the pool environment had done their work over the years, leaving the system almost completely inoperable. In fact, the swim coach had taken to bringing in portable speakers on stands for meets, because virtually all of the facility speakers had failed.
Tim Hamilton, owner of Hamilton AV Design, worked with the school and the architects to assess the needs of the facility and to design and deliver a new, functional, and long-term sound system for the pool space. Or, as the primary directive from the school put it, to MAKE IT ROCK!
This in mind, Hamilton designed a system featuring Fulcrum Acoustic speakers for the primary spectator area and the main areas of the pool deck where swimmers congregate. Additional fill areas of the pool deck and the adjacent hallways and locker rooms were covered by smaller Atlas speakers, providing excellent and consistent sound coverage despite the acoustic challenges of each area.
But something was still missing. To help the system achieve maximum impact—and to really make it rock—Hamilton also added in two dual 21” subs from Fulcrum.
“We really wanted to be able to feel the bass in the space and size of the room lends itself to big speakers” Hamilton noted. “We had some challenges to get the subs up where they would function correctly, miss the mechanical ductwork, and still remain serviceable for the future. While it took some effort to get everything coordinated, the end result was worth it”.
Down in a climate-controlled room behind the scorer’s office sits the amp rack, housing QSC processing, QSC CXD series amplifiers, and other support equipment for the sound system. With their freshly renovated space and a fantastic sound system designed for it, the Homewood-Floormoor swimmers are ready for any challenge that lies ahead.
Completed: July 2018
Expert AV Solutions
Based in Zeeland, MI, Hamilton AV Design provides commercial audio and visual system designs, stage lighting design, sound system and room acoustics tuning, and network technology cabling design for a wide variety of projects at nearly any budget or scale. We pride ourselves on practicality, designing systems grounded in real world use and built to be affordable, functional, and lasting.
To learn more, contact us today at (616) 836-1776 or tim@hamiltonavdesign.com.
