Phoenix, AZ November 22nd, 2013 - Atlas Sound, the leader in commercial audio solutions for over 80 years, was pleased to have its ControlKom 2.0 software and paging relays selected to run the on site paging system at the 2013 New York City Marathon held November 3rd, 2013.
The New York City Marathon is one of the most prestigious marathon events in the world featuring a course that navigated all five of New York City's boroughs. The 2013 race featured over fifty thousand entrants. Anticipating such a large number of participants and with the return to the five borough course format, marathon organizers needed to ensure that all participants and volunteers could receive clear instruction on site as well as deliver live messaging where needed.
Systems integrator, MSA, chose Atlas Sound's ControlKom 2.0 IP paging software and paging relays to deliver the prerecorded and live paging communications the event required. ControlKom 2.0 was chosen as it was the only option that could meet all of the requirements set forth by organizers to meet the needs of participants, volunteers, spectators, and law enforcement officers. Organizers had to have the ability to generate pages or live announcements to individual or multiple zones using a public network. ControlKom 2.0's layer 3 functionality works perfectly in this type of application and Atlas Sound PR-CK paging relays enabled network messages to be distributed to rented analog PA systems in each of the 9 zones created for the race. The ControlKom 2.0 system was preprogrammed with 74 messages that provided everything from instructions for volunteers starting at 4:00AM to race announcements that ran throughout the morning. The ControlKom 2.0 system was supervised via a single networked computer in the centalized Emergency Operations Center, which served as the hub for multiple civilian and law enforcement agencies providing service and security at the race.
"This event was unlike anything that we have used ControlKom for in the past," said Senior Vice President of Digital Systems Dan Murphy. "This was a great opportunity to use our software in an atypical installation with great results. Security and communication are a huge concern at events like this and the schools, industrial facilities, and government buildings we most often use ControlKom in. With such huge crowds across such a big area, having the ability to send out the prerecorded messages to individual zones where that message is needed made it very easy for organizers and to keep things running smoothly and our ability to activate a live page immediately if needed ensured that all of the law enforcement officers on site could react at a moments notice."