Craig Benzel, Director of Marketing for the Green Bay Packers, approached consultant Danny Abelson of In-Game Services (IGS, Inc.), with a special challenge.

Benzel and the Packers needed a special speaker system for the Miller Lite ‘End Zone,’ a premium seating area at Packer Stadium underneath the top bowl at the North End. A terraced area beneath the main speaker cluster, the End Zone is for young adults — between the ages of 21 to 28 — a target market for the Miller Brewing Company.

The challenge was to create a special treatment for the area that would have the versatility to alternatively handle a live radio feed from the local Packer Radio Network, and reproduce the stadium PA without having it conflict with and/or drown out the radio feed.

Abelson’s solution was to design a high quality specially-focused loudspeaker treatment fed with programme sources controlled by an automated ducking circuit. The circuit normally provides a feed from the home radio play-by-play announcers, and automatically switches to time-delayed in-bowl programming whenever the main end zone PA system is in use.

The loudspeakers had to combine the clarity and power required for both tasks, so Abelson chose six Martin Audio WT2-WP weatherproofed enclosures for the job, based on their exceptional vocal intelligibility and reliability.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, In-Game Services specialises in applying high quality audio-visual techniques to the college and professional sports markets, along with management expertise, owner representation, and trained game operations crews.

“The nature of today’s in-game sporting environment has changed,” notes Abelson. “Team owners and managers realise they must entertain their fan base to maximise marketing opportunities and customer enjoyment. We always recommend the most appropriate product for an application. That is why we are so satisfied with our decision to use the Martin loudspeakers in this application.

“The Packers are a demanding organisation and Lambeau Field is well known for it’s harsh ‘frozen tundra’ environment. The Martin enclosures look great, provide great sound for the fans in the Miller Lite End Zone, and can handle the elements.”