Atop the Green Monster

Apr 1, 1998 12:00 PM, Gregory A. DeTogne

History has shown that if you are a Boston Red Sox fan, you learn to live with catastrophe. I realize that making a statement like that may seem like no way to begin this article, especially with the onset of spring. Let me say for the record that I am not suggesting that the team's athletic ability is in woeful shape. The catastrophes I am referring to are the biblical kind---you know, fires, floods and plagues of locusts. For you see, Fenway Park-that grand old dame of ballparks, bastion of red hots and beer, bulwark of the buy-me-some-peanuts-and-Crackerjacks set-has had its share of disasters that were unrelated to activities witnessed on its natural grass playing field. To wit: ill omens of calamities to come were apparent from day one. Having been postponed two days in a row by rainouts, the first official game was finally played at Fenway on April 20, 1912. The Red Sox struggled valiantly to defeat the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees) seven to six in 11 innings before a crowd of 27,000, only to have news of the winning run driven in by Tris Speaker bumped from the front pages of every Boston newspaper by the sinking of the Titanic.

Now, the fires. The first occurred on May 8, 1926, when the bleachers along the left field foul line burned to the ground. Too bad for fans who liked those seats, but it was a boon for outfielders who could now snag foul flies behind the grandstands, an area that was previously out of reach. Then, there was the Great Conflagration of January 5, 1934. That is when a four-alarm, four-hour blaze charbroiled the best efforts of a construction team hired by owner T.A. Yawkey to renovate the park.

On the audio scale of catastrophic events at Fenway, historical records show that none of the park's sound systems have ever spontaneously combusted or exploded. One did drown, however, and recently at that, in 1995.

First installed in 1980, the victim performed faithfully for years, but ultimately began to flounder in its old age. Its death knell sounded at the end of the 1995 season despite tireless lifesaving attempts.

"That system's departure was attributable in no small part to water," noted Zeke Zola, manager of Boston Light & Sound's audio division. He, along with associate Mark Rowinski, jointly led the contracting team responsible for resuscitating Fenway's sodden audio condition a couple of years back. "The system did indeed literally drown. During its last, unreliable days, we were replacing drivers constantly in the low-frequency section because the custom cabinets enclosing them had deteriorated to a point where rainwater was pouring in with total abandon. Finally, we reached a point where the components had been replaced and submerged again so many times that it was just useless."

Compounding the old system's performance senility in its soggy dotage was the fact that although changes had been made in Fenway's seating sections, none were made-or were able to be made physically-in the rigid cluster design. As a result, the aging mid/high horns situated above the mildewing LF enclosures blared away with impunity right into a block of upscale stadium club seats known as the 600 Club, and those seated below were left to dwell in an audio shadowland of distant unintelligibility.

In solving Fenway's audio dilemma, Boston Light & Sound implemented a rescuing design penned by Stephen Siegel. Siegel, who was with Boston-based Acentech at the time, completed a plan with the assistance of Dave Homa, which promised to end the park's audio troubles once and for all.

As working partnerships go, Boston Light & Sound's relationship with Acentech was first established when the two firms teamed up in 1990 to bring order to a chaotic wiring scheme in Fenway's main systems control room. Jointl y rising to another Fenway occasion again in 1991, the duo brought a distributed system to the ballpark's concourse areas using 116 University Sound 848AT horns, an Altec Lansing-based delay system to the stadium and a number of other system upgrades to the control room, including IED monitoring.

Well satisfied with the incremental improvements Acentech and Boston Light & Sound had made, Fenway Park management didn't even question the need for replacing the waterlogged main cluster in early 1996. In avoiding the mistakes of the past, the design called for installing an infallibly weatherproof single cluster, which would be located in the same spot as its predecessor-atop Fenway's left field wall, which is known locally as the Green Monster.

Following a period of research and component evaluation, both Acentech and Boston Light & Sound concurred that the new audio components scheduled to sit atop the Green Monster in left field would be grouped in a single cluster consisting of five MH4020C coaxial stadium horns from Electro-Voice.

For the long throws required of the cluster, which ranged up to almost 500 feet (152 m) in some places, the MH4020C horn/drivers inherently possess the necessary power to reach home plate from their distant outfield aerie. Standing 59 inches (1.5 m) high and measuring 39 inches (1 m) across, each horn/driver assembly is 73.9 inches (1.9 m) deep.

Because of their large-mouthed capacities, the MH horns differ from traditional designs in that they maintain their 40 x 20 pattern control down to 350 Hz. This performance factor reduces LF spillover and keeps intelligibility high. The presence on each horn/driver system of a manifolded, multidriver high- frequency section (which crosses over at 1.25 kHz) is responsible for providing the acoustic output power needed for Fenway's distant areas of coverage.

"The MH Series stadium horns met our coverage requirements, and then some," Zola recalled. "Plus, their fiberglass design rendered them nearly impervious to the elements, which, based upon past experience, was a vital precondition."

Operable from 150 Hz to 20 kHz (-3 dB with 109 dB efficiency), the coaxial MH4020C horn/driver systems comprising the main cluster at Fenway employ Electro-Voice's constant directivity and manifold technology. Suited for reinforcing both music and speech material, the two-way devices are loaded on the low/mid end of the spectrum with four 10 inch (254 mm) Electro-Voice DL10X-SH drivers. For the coaxially mounted high-frequency sections, a pair of Electro-Voice's 2 inch (51 mm) N/DYM 1/2MT compression drivers were mounted in a manifolded configuration on each.

Thrown a curve once again by the elements, Boston Light & Sound's efforts to complete the installation in time for the beginning of the 1996 baseball season were stymied by the usual driving snowstorms that accompany opening day north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Completing everything they could within the heated comfort of their shop, they waited nervously for the weather to break.

Finally, they were granted a reprieve, which left them with little more than a week to get everything in place. Guided by the mindful preparations of Fenway's groundskeeper, the crew drove a bucket truck onto the outfield and hoisted four of the five MH Series Stadium Horns into place atop the Green Monster. The fifth horn/driver assembly was positioned with a crane from outside the stadium.

Powering Electro-Voice's stadium horn cluster is an assortment of Crest amps, consisting of five model 4801s and three 3301s. With the 4801s providing the oomph for the low/mid drivers, the 3301s pick up the slack for the high-frequency sections. Processing is an all-in-one affair, with a single DP-0204 DACsys II device from TOA Electronics managing EQ, crossover rates, limiting and a pinch of delay for alignment purposes only.

In the control room behind home plate, a DDA Interface 8 x 4 x 2 console mixes the signals arriving at the cluster, which arrive from sources including a computer-controlled music system. Bringing the job to completion at right around $100,000, the Boston Light & Sound crew and Acentech tuned the system in time for opening day using TEF analysis.

"It sounds good," Zola reported. "We were able to position the loudspeakers where they needed to be this time to obtain the coverage we wanted, so the intelligibility is excellent. Red Sox management is pleased, too, and the system works as it should with both voice announcements and music."