State College Area School Board on Monday unanimously approved a bid for sound system upgrades at Memorial Field.
Sage Resources’ bid of $88,688 was the only one received for the project, according to director of physical plant Mike Fisher.
The existing public address system is not sufficient when the venue is near capacity and announcements and game play highlights cannot be heard by attendees, Fisher wrote in a memo.
“There’s pockets in the stadium where you really can’t hear,” Superintendent Bob O’Donnell said. “It’s pretty poor and at games you can’t hear the announcer. Once there’s a crowd in the stadium it’s pretty bad. We had a makeshift [system] in there so that it would be better this year.”
The bid includes all audio equipment, structural integration and labor.
“Previously there were smaller speakers almost at field level,” Fisher said. “Now with the acoustic engineers involved their design has larger speakers actually up on top of the press box coming down so that, number one, we don’t interfere with people close to the speakers so it’s too loud and also we’ll be able to hear across to the visitors’ side as well.”
The installation is unlikely to be completed in time for high school graduation in June, so Sage Resources will provide “a suitable temporary system,” as part of the bid.
Sound system upgrades were not a part of the Memorial Field renovation project completed in 2020 in an effort to save money, O’Donnell said.
“The attempt was internal to try to save money and it’s not as good as it needs to be. I think we all agree on that,” O’Donnell said. “It wasn’t part of the project, so we’re sorry to be here doing this. We wish it was spot on right from the start when the project was completed.”
