Rainwater looks into new audio system

Published 9:00 am Saturday, March 25, 2017

VALDOSTA — Rainwater Conference Center will be looking to replace its audio system in the next fiscal year.

The audio system is 17 years old and has already had some equipment replaced and had other equipment removed entirely, General Manager Tim Riddle said at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Tourism Authority regularly called meeting Tuesday.

“We’ve replaced a few things here and there, … but we’ve noticed over the last couple of months there’s a persistent hissing in the grand hall,” he said. “… We’ve isolated most of the issues and things we don’t need to use and we can work around it for a while.”

The project is looking to be a total overhaul of the sound system with a full replacement, he said. It is expected to cost between $40,000-$60,000.

“It’s one of those jobs that, when we do it, it’s probably better to replace everything with all the same brand, all at the same time and hook it all back up and hopefully get it back up to snuff,” Riddle said.

The audio system has been moved up on the conference center’s priority list.

“You can deal with a lot of things in a conference center but you can’t have bad sound,” Riddle said. “You can’t have people in that room, especially in the grand hall, and not be able to speak to the people who are convening.”

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Tourism Authority meets 8 a.m the fourth Tuesday of every month at at Rainwater Conference Center. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1256.