NEW YORK – For the annual Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest at the original Nathan’s Famous location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood, ESPN covered the event and handled the audio for TV viewers, and for the live crowds attending, RCF gear provided sound reinforcement for the event’s proceedings. The setup included three towers of RCF HDL50-A line arrays, a pair of TTL6-A line source cabinets for infield coverage in front of the stage and HDL20-A line arrays for attendees farther from the stage. In addition, RCF NX12-SMA lined the stage and were used for monitor purposes.
More details from RCF (www.rcf.it):
In an annual ritual, tens of thousands of people gathered on the Fourth of July at the intersection of Surf and Stillwell in Coney Island for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. And in what is almost an annual ritual now, champion Joey Chestnut devoured the competition for the tenth time downing a record setting 72 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
While ESPN provided TV coverage for the event, it was up to RCF to provide sound for the masses in attendance.
“Coverage is very difficult with the stage setting, the obstacles of system placement due to the live broadcast, and trying to cover such a vast area,” noted RCF’s Vice President of Sales who was on hand for the event. “Being set up at a street intersection, the crowd fans out in T-shape up and down the streets. Plus being in the Coney Park amusement area, it is a very loud environment to begin with.”
For coverage, it required three towers of the RCF HDL50-A large format three-way line arrays, two positioned to the left and right of the staging area with a third delay tower down the street. In addition, a pair of TTL6-A three-way line source cabinets were used for the infield coverage in front of the stage with HDL20-A line arrays providing reinforcement to the outfield second section of crowd. RCF NX12-SMA line the stage for monitors.
