Downtown Sioux City Brings the Beat with Technomad’s Outdoor Audio System

Downtown Sioux City just got a serious sound upgrade—thanks to a powerful new weatherproof town audio system from Technomad, now live along 4th Street between Virginia and Jones.

As part of an initiative to enhance the pedestrian experience, Downtown Partners, a local business district improvement group, contacted KES to explore options for bringing widespread music playback to the city core. Ike Rayford of KES worked with Technomad to discuss system design and options. 

A final design of thirteen poles with audio gear was installed across several blocks. Each streetlight pole featured one weatherproof PowerChiton Micro amplifier, with an integrated WiFi access point and streaming audio receiver, powering two Technomad Vernal loudspeakers. To match the aesthetics of the street lights, the PowerChiton amplifiers were ordered with the optional black color upgrade. 

The speakers were mounted using a stainless dual-speaker mount, secured to the pole with stainless banding. The amplifiers were similarly mounted with stainless brackets and banding. Due to the excellent output and projection of the system, the speaker systems were installed in a zigzag pattern across each side of the street, on poles spaced roughly 120’ apart. Most blocks featured three audio poles. 

At the head end of the system, an audio rack with mic and line level inputs allows the operator to choose between live announcements and pre-recorded audio playback. This audio can then be streamed over the WiFi network being used for distribution to the output system. 

Ragen Cote, Executive Director of Downtown Partners, stated her appreciation, “The Technomad Solution provided everything we had hoped it would be, so much that each unit can be separately controlled because one unit is located near a hotel, and we had to lower the volume for that unit without affecting any of the others. We are looking forward to expanding the project!”