The London-based Millwall Football Club players are known as The Lions and they call their home stadium ‘The Den.’  The original audio system at The Den was designed as a speech focused PA and voice warning system, centered around SH494 horns loaded with M200 mid-range drivers manufactured by Community Professional Loudspeakers.  Following an overcrowding disaster at another UK stadium in 1989, the 20,146-seat Den was designed with effective crowd management in mind, with the escape routes being short and direct.  The PA system had been performing impeccably since the stadium opened in 1993, but the club's board and shareholders were keen to improve the audio from just a PA system into an entertainment system in 2009.

The club turned to their existing CCTV and AV supplier for a solution, who in turn contacted Community’s UK distributor CUK Audio.  The installer asked for a demonstration to be held on-site, and CUK's Alan Lochhead performed a full demonstration of Community R-Series.  As soon as the installer and the club's board heard the sound from the Community system, the decision was simple – R-Series was indeed the right choice.

CUK’s Stuart Cunningham acoustically modeled the venue and designed a system that would deliver the performance required, while taking the budgetary and mounting location restrictions into consideration.  Stuart selected R-Series R1-66Z and R1-94Z loudspeakers for their pattern control, efficiency, and bandwidth.  The final sound system comprised a total of 40 R1 loudspeakers with some of the existing SH494 horns re-deployed to provide effective pitch coverage.  Lee Thompson of Lancashire-based contractor Pure Install carried out the final system commissioning with great results, and fans of The Lions now enjoy a powerful entertainment sound system with the Community R-Series treatment.

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