The existing paging systems installed in the Chicago Metra stations nearly ten years ago had not performed as intended, leading to Consultants Teng & Associates, Inc. of Chicago being contacted to design the new paging systems for the five downtown Chicago Railway stations.

The criteria required that at any position along the train platforms the new system had to meet international standards for speech intelligibility. The acoustic space consisted of concrete platforms and walls with a steel structure ceiling. The diesel engines produced 100dBa of noise measured perpendicular to the diesel engine at the centre of the platform.

Considering the acoustic characteristics for these areas and the level of ambient noise, this task seemed monumental.

Senior Design Consultant, Kevin Hughes, however, had a great idea where to look: "With my live sound experience I had long admired the performance of Funktion-One touring systems and I immediately thought of Funktion-One to create a loudspeaker capable of meeting our needs."

Hughes approached Tony Andrews of Funktion One and evaluation samples of the Resolution 2S8 were duly sent to Chicago and found to be capable of delivering intelligible speech above the noise of two diesel engines at full chat in the station platform environment.

Tony comments, "The Res2 S8 is a powerful and effective combination of high performance and natural simplicity. The high bandwidth, high efficiency, horn loaded 8" proprietary loudspeaker proved to be the perfect choice for demanding speech applications where quality of vocal intelligibility is paramount.

Things were looking positive and consequently at the end of last Summer we found ourselves manufacturing and delivering 650 of our new R2S8 units for installation into the Chicago railway stations."

If in Chicago be sure to check out Ogilvie and Randalph stations...

Link to Resolution 2S8 product page