Renkus-Heinz Iconyx in Sea Isle City

The beach communities on New Jersey's eastern shore are popular tourist destinations during the summer months. Sea Isle City, a picturesque coastal town on Ludlam Island, sees an annual influx of nearly 40,000 vacationers between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and hosts a multitude of free events including beach parties, outdoor concerts and other activities.

In 2011 the city embarked on a $14-million project to create a public corridor from the bay to the ocean, in an effort to better accommodate the growing tourist population. Plans included the construction of a small pavilion and band shell and small pavilion at Excursion Park, located along the city's coastal Promenade.

The pavilion was designed to be used for dedication ceremonies, weddings, and other small venues, while the band shell accommodates larger outdoor concerts, video presentations, and weekly movie nights. The band shell has six rows of permanent seating with additional lawn seating behind.

The park's proximity to the ocean presented certain obstacles for A/V designers, who must ensure the system can hold up to its environment. Saben Shawhan, senior A/V system consultant at Metropolitan Acoustics in Philadelphia , the lead audio/visual system designer for the project, explains the challenges of placing a sound system on the beach:

"Being located near the water means weather, wind, ocean noise, salt water and humidity, so obviously product durability is crucial," he says. "Any equipment we use has to withstand the New Jersey Shore weather -- and it has to be powerful enough to support live performances and video presentations."

Metropolitan Acoustics selected Iconyx Live Series digitally steerable line array loudspeakers by Renkus-Heinz. Two IC Live ICL-FR-WR weather-resistant columns with stainless steel grilles and fiberglass coating are permanently mounted on either side of the stage, with doors that keep the loudspeakers protected when not in use. Two IC215S-R subwoofers are mounted directly beneath two 55" LCD displays, with acoustically-transparent grilles that effectively conceal the subwoofers from view as well as protect them from the elements. An additional set of portable IC215S-R subwoofers was included with the system, which can be deployed for more demanding audio applications, such as large live performances. All of the loudspeakers, subwoofers, and stage monitors are self-powered. The end user can control system parameters and preset events through a Crestron interface, which simplifies and manages video routing as well the rear-projection system.

According to Metropolitan Acoustics, the IC Live system met every design challenge: durability, focus, musicality, intelligibility, and enough power to support concert level output.

"It's a very versatile system that can be used with a small automatic mic mixer for movies, DJs and presentations, or with a larger mixer for live performances," Shawhan says. "The sound quality and intelligibility is outstanding, considering the environment and small footprint of the installed components," he says.