Portable Sound System for the Community

Collaborators: Wayne County Extension District Board, Fair Board President, Susie Cowan, Parks and Recreation director, Lonnie Chaplin, County Judge Executive, Mike Anderson, Sound System Designer, Caleb Rose, ANR Agent, Glen Roberts, ANR Assistant, Terry Bertram, KSU Small Farm Assistant, Danny Adams, Wayne County Extension Custodian, Jeff Sutton.

Situation:  Our community does not have a good quality sound system for large community events.  
The system that our county park has is old and inadequate for large events like our county fair.  We have struggled with poor quality sound in that system.  When we have community events in other locations we have to depend on our outside source to provide the sound system at considerable cost to the local tax payer.  

Our Wayne County Extension Council through our District Board has discussed the sound system needs with the local stake holder for a number of years.  The needs were apparent to each stakeholder , but how to go about solving the problem was less apparent.  Our District Board stepped up and voted to allocate $15,000 to be used toward solving the sound system needs.  

I met with our local Fair Board to "brainstorm" sound systems needs for the County Fair .  One member mentioned how a portable sound system used by a travelling rodeo had worked well.  The "light bulb" went off that we could have a good system for the park and being portable we could use it at other community events and save local tax payers money in the process.

I met with a Wayne County native, Caleb Rose who along with his brother and friend did sound systems in the summer for weddings and other events while they were going to college.  He works for a company in Nashville that does sound systems for groups.  He liked the idea and came up with a design that he was confident would work and we began ordering components.  When they came in he set the system up in an empty room to get it ready for use at the county fair.  We intended to house the system and for transport in a 16' box trailer with a vendor window.  We found out that due to shortages we could not get a trailer built for 8 months and the fair was only a month away.  We arrived at a solution to purchase and 8'x12' wooden barn and placed it on my 16' gooseneck for portability.  We wired the building and built a table to hold the board, amps etc. and anchored it to the wall.  We still had to build steps to get up on the trailer and props for the 4'x10' vendor window.  I "farmerized" the props by using 3/4" galvanized pipe with tees on the end between eye screws and secured by hitch pins.  We built steps four feet wide and four steps high positioned behind the trailer.  The system was used at the 2021 Wayne County Fair and Horse Show.  The local fair board and the attendees at the fair were well pleased with the new sound system.  It is easily stored at the secure storage facility belonging to the Wayne County Extension Service.  It has been used 4 times for events at the local park and performed well each time.  Previously backordered items, including 8 speakers to be mounted on the poles in the arena, the amp to power them plus the 1000 feet of cable have arrived and will be installed prior to the 2022 Wayne County Fair and Horse. Show.  This will add even more to the sound quality and reach at the Park.