Background and Scope of Work
The University of Central Florida Knights Division I baseball and softball teams have a storied history that includes many conference and tournament championships. The men’s baseball team was originally founded in 1970 as a club team, but officially began playing under the UCF banner in 1973. In its 50 year history, the men’s baseball team have made a dozen NCAA tournament appearances and won six tournament championships. The women’s softball team has a more recent history, being officially founded in 2002 under head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie and has appeared in eight NCAA tournaments and won three conference championships. In their short 20 season history, the women’s softball team has maintained a winning average of .620 with only two head coaches.
Each UCF team has a dedicated field for games and practice: John Euliano Park for the men’s baseball team and the UCF Softball Complex for the women’s softball team. UCF wanted to showcase the success of each team and give fans a superior gameday experience at each stadium with improved audio, communication, and press box controls. WPS was selected to replace the existing horn-style loudspeaker systems with an updated distributed audio system for both parks.
John Euliano Park:
The existing sound system for the 3,000-seat John Euliano Park consisted of horn-style loudspeakers that were installed during the construction of the stadium in 2002. UCF wanted to replace the existing system with a modern, networked audio system driven by a Q-SYS Core 110f DSP that manages a series of Tannoy AMS-8DC loudspeakers and Fulcrum Acoustics CX826-WR and FH1565-WR1 loudspeakers powered by a 4-channel Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804 power amplifier. In the pressbox, front-of-house mixing is accomplished with a Midas M32R 40-channel console. Vocal duties are handled by a Shure SM58-LC cardioid microphone and a ULXD2/58-G50 wireless microphone attached to a ULXD4D receiver.
Loudspeakers were distributed throughout the stadium, including:
- Club level
- Main canopy
- Under balcony
UCF Softball Complex
Officially opening in March of 2006, the UCF Softball Complex is a slightly scaled-down version of John Euliano Park, but received many of the same audio system upgrades including a series Fulcrum Acoustic CX826-WR and FH1565-WR1 loudspeakers located on the front face of the pressbox powered by a Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804 amplifier. A networked Q-SYS Core 110F DSP handles the audio processing and a Midas M32R console manages front-of-house mixing in the pressbox. Like John Euliano Park, Shure SM58-LC cardioid and ULXD2/58-G50 wireless microphones are used for announcers.
