Starlite Goes to the Beach

	A PA sound system now runs the full mile of the Ocean City Boardwalk.

The Boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey is a popular summer destination for thousands of families and the sights, sounds, and activities keep people coming back year after year.

However, city officials recognized that the existing sound system, used for announcements and music along the historic boardwalk as well as the landmark Music Pier, was extremely outdated, ineffective, and in dire need of updating.

Multiple parties were involved in the conception, design, and implementation of the new system, including Ocean City representatives Gerald McGee, Michael Dress, and Tim Beakley, Starlite's sales and systems integration team, Buck's and Sons Electric, and several manufacturers and manufacturer rep firms.

The design criteria was simple: Provide exceptional intelligibility at an appropriate sound pressure level along a one-mile span of the boardwalk for the enormous crowds that descend on the boardwalk each summer. However, the planners had to account for two very challenging obstacles: (a) the mile-long length that the signal and power had to travel, and (b) the harsh weather elements given the close proximity of the ocean and its accompanying corrosive saltwater.

To ensure the proper power and signal flow along the mile-long boardwalk, the team opted for a design, which included networking of the remotely located amp racks along with network extenders by Paton Electronics in order to run the cable the over entire distance without any splices.

This system design included: 70 Community R.35COAX loudspeakers with custom Polar Focus pole mounts, four QSC CXD4.5Q 8,000W amplifiers and a Q-SYSTM Core 110F integrated scalable audio, video, and control solution. The Q-SYS system was instrumental in optimizing amplification, wattage per zone, speaker taps, and the like, and Starlite Productions included a custom graphical user interface (GUI) for the touch screen, which included a pictorial view of nine-blocks of the boardwalk and the accompanying zones.

Once the team finalized the design, the initial stages of the project started in the off-season of 2016. The installation took about one month and the result was a state-of-the-art sound reinforcement system with impressive quality audio throughout the boardwalk.

Michael Dress mentions, "I have come to know Starlite as a pillar in this industry and we are fortunate to have such a world-class company in our backyard!" With the collaboration of all parties involved, the outcome was a huge success with impressive audio quality and system features.

Memorial Day weekend, the official start to summer, was the ultimate test for the new system, and it didn't disappoint. That weekend, a child was a missing on the boardwalk and employees were able to quickly and clearly make announcements. Shortly thereafter, a follow-up announcement that the child had been found was made and "We could hear applause and cheers up and down the boardwalk," adds Dress. "The emergency response team with Ocean City is very impressed and excited about what this new system has to offer."

This system is much more than just a public address system as the revamped system will allow Ocean City to take their Boardwalk events to a completely new level, such as fireworks displays with synchronized music and their annual Air Show with the world's top aerobatic pilots.