RCF Bucking the Rodeo Elements

When Montana Pro Audio was called on to replace a 15-year-old sound system at the Beaverhead County Fair Rodeo Arena, they faced a scenario that limited their installation options leaving them to search and source the right product to both provide the coverage they needed and endure the outdoor elements of the rodeo arena. “The only placement options for the bleacher seats were light poles which are irregularly spaced with respect to the bleachers,” notes Montana Pro Audio Integration Manager Ryan Johnston. Plus, “the existing speaker wire to the far side of the arena was buried and would have to be reused for the updated system,” leaving them with pre-specified speaker positions. With that in mind, “We needed to select a loudspeaker system that would withstand the weather with fairly high output and low power ratings. We also needed a series that had different horn patterns that we could deploy based on throw distance, as due to the bleacher/pole layout we had to vary between shorter and medium distance throws.” Johnston continues, “We were also looking for a bracket mount option to simplify rigging and supply a stable mount for the speakers. “Plus the far side speakers would have to be powered with a 70-volt amplifier and stepped back down using an autoformer at the speaker end to maximize the amount of power we could send over the long, smaller gauge wire runs from the existing infrastructure.”