What is the sound
system used for? Is it primarily speech reinforcement or effects or music playback? Do the shows include full range, high energy/
level music as a major component? Where is the mix position and where would other equipment be located? What
power and
conduit or
raceway provisions are provided for the audio
system? Not trying to do a full design here, but rather just identifying some of the issues that could affect the
system and that should be considered. You may have already addressed all of these, if not you need to as they can affect the options available and the costs involved.
The
thrust stage, balconies and seating arrangement make it where it will likely take looking in some detail at what mounting locations are feasible and the actual
speaker coverage you can obtain, so any quick 'off the cuff' suggestions are pretty much just guesses. With that in mind, my first reaction is that some form of center
array or
cluster with a very wide
pattern and located out near the end of the
thrust stage might be your best bet, along with some side fills off either side of the
stage, but the structure may not allow hanging anything like that out there. Next would be an exploded
mono array at the front of the seating, but again, I don't know where it is actually
practical to hang or mount anything, We don't even really know if a
mono system is acceptable.
With the VR62, you can rotate the
horn to get the box to work better physically for most fill applications, but if you look at the actual
pattern of the box, the nominal 60 degree vertical
pattern has a big dip between 1kHz and 3kHz and the
pattern drops to only about 25 degrees at 2kHz. Since that is in a fairly critical range for intelligibility, you might need to consider it when looking at the coverage. And unless they were special ordered, I don't believe the VR62 are intended for outdoor or exterior applications, which sounds like it may be a factor.
When looking at the CobraNet costs, be sure to look at the related cabling, hardware and installation costs as well as the equipment costs in order to make a fair comparison. Not saying CN or ES the way to go, but don't look at just the card costs in making that decision. In fact, be sure to consider these other costs in general as the installation, cable, equipment racks, adjustments and tuning,
etc. for the
system are usually a significant portion of the total
system cost. Don't neglect those aspects, it makes no sense to spend all your money on equipment to just
throw it together.
This also ties back to the
DSP units as the
system processing will be only as good as the programming and adjustments. Unless you have the tools and experience for all the setup, don't forget to factor in someone to help on it.