AtlasIED FS Series Horn Speakers Enhance New 42,000-Square-Foot Waterpark with Background Music and More

When family fun is wet, wild, and loud, The Cove Waterpark and EliteAV integrators turn to AtlasIED’s high-performance far-field stadium speakers.

Indoor waterparks are designed to be loud and wet. The noise level of laughter and splashing water can easily overpower background music and announcements delivered by traditional PA and background music systems. Additionally, typical loudspeakers cannot survive the moist, humid conditions for very long. Acoustically and environmentally challenging, waterparks demand careful consideration of speaker selection and placement. After auditioning several speakers as a new $3 million waterpark in Little Elm, Texas, was being designed, the management team at The Cove at The Lakefront selected robust, stadium-grade, weatherproof speakers from AtlasIED for the 42,0000-square-foot recreational facility.

“For this unique and demanding project, we needed rugged outdoor speakers that technically could be rained on continuously,” says Steve Withey of AV integration firm EliteAV. “After investigating the build quality, efficiency, installation requirements, and aesthetic attributes of numerous speaker brands and getting input from the operators of the aquatic center, AtlasIED’s FS Series horn speakers checked off every box.”

Constructed of metal, glass, and cement, and with thousands of gallons of water churning, spilling, and gushing throughout the facility non-stop, The Cove is an “acoustical nightmare,” Withey remarks. “But nothing the AtlasIED horns can’t handle.” Their remarkable efficiency (up to 128.5 dB @ 1 meter) allowed EliteAV to push the volume with modest amplification. “The waterpark administrators had originally planned on using speakers intended for PA, but as they discovered during our side-by-side comparisons with the AtlasIED FS Series speakers, music sounded squawky when delivered by a different brand of speakers and was unable to achieve the volume level necessary for pages and music to be heard clearly throughout the facility.”

“Volume capacity was a huge selling feature for us,” affirms The Cove aquatics division manager, Elissa Malone. “The AtlasIED horn speakers have lived up to their reputation. On an average week, about 6,500 people come through the doors of the waterpark, and no matter how crowded or noisy it gets, our guests never struggle to hear background music or PA announcements. Plus, the system is calibrated perfectly so that the sound of a lifeguard blowing a whistle never goes unheard.” Withey adds, “We haven’t even maxed out the capacity of the speakers. The volume level is set at about 80 percent so we can push it even further if necessary. This feature alone has made AtlasIED FS Series speakers our go-to for commercial projects with similar requirements.”

After carefully analyzing the layout and ambient noise levels of the waterpark, EliteAV determined that 11 AltasIED speakers would be needed to provide even, consistent coverage. Aimed inward from the perimeter of the structure and spaced appropriately, every square inch of The Cove gets an ample dose of audio. EliteAV complemented the five FS Series horn speakers with six AtlasIED SM Series all-weather speakers placed in the mezzanine that overlooks the waterpark. The entire AtlasIED setup is divided into zones, enabling staff to play different music in the mezzanine during a birthday party rental, for example.

Despite pushing out massive volume, the FS Series speakers are remarkably small and lightweight. This simplified the installation dramatically, which involved mounting 11 speakers onto steel beams 12 feet high comprising the waterpark’s structure. The battleship gray color of the FS Series speaker housings blends with the beams and looks like a natural part of the environment whether the retractable roof is open or closed.

Recreational facilities like The Cove need to be fun but also safe. The addition of AtlasIED’s FS Series horn and SM Series speakers satisfies both demands. Thoughtfully engineered by AtlasIED and meticulously installed and configured by EliteAV, the speakers throughout the environmentally and acoustically challenging environment keep guests entertained with specially curated background music and informed of safety rules and policies. Tied to a complete AV distribution system, the AtlasIED speakers provide the waterpark staff with an efficient means of communication to keep The Cove running smoothly throughout the day.