Yamaha Provides Loudspeakers for Use at Special Olympics Southern California

Local police officers sing the national anthem and provide the color guard at the opening ceremonies in 2011 with the help of a MSR250

Buena Park, Calif. — The Special Olympics Southern California is a two-day event attended by around 5,000 spectators and volunteers and over 1,000 athletes and coaches. Held at California State University, Long Beach, the competitions and ceremonies are held across a wide geographical area. To make it easier to hear announcements and engage the audience, this year Yamaha Corporation of America's Live Sound department loaned the organization 16 MSR400 powered loudspeakers to help spread the word.

The Special Olympics Southern California offers year-round training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and provides many services and fun things to do during the games, including exhibits, live entertainment and free health screenings for athletes. At the recently completed summer games, athletes competed in six events, including aquatics, athletics (track & field), basketball, bocce, golf and gymnastics.

"These speakers were a fantastic addition to our sound system for the weekend," said Sarah Robinson. "We used them at each venue to announce competition, play music through the MP3 connection on the back, announce awards and also link them together in "daisy chain" fashion. They were very intuitive to use and also had a great amount of power per speaker, which allowed us to fill each venue with loud and clear sound."

Employees of Yamaha Corporation of America have long been involved with the Special Olympics Southern California as volunteers. This is the third year that Yamaha Live Sound has loaned sound reinforcement equipment to the event, which uses the speakers to announce different competitions and times as well as announce the winners in the various events. The equipment is also used at two of the venue's stages, including the Opening Ceremony and the Entertainment Stage.

In years past, Yamaha provided MSR250 speakers, but due to the group's need, the company donated the use of the more powerful MSR400 loudspeakers. The MSR400 served as the perfect solution for the venue thanks to their ease of use: just plug in a microphone and they provide 400 watts of clear, powerful sound.

For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Live Sound, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com; visit http://4wrd.it/livesound.