Fairground Weather Alert System

The Erie County Fair—held in Hamburg, NY—is the fourth largest county fair in North America, attracting over a million visitors annually. Garry Steiger, the event’s program coordinator, approached Visiplex for a wireless weather alert and public address system that could:

To meet the needs of large public venues, Visiplex developed a scalable, wireless fairground weather alert system centered around the VS4810 Wireless Paging Base Station, installed in the main control room. A high-power VS101-40 transmitter ensures full RF coverage across all fairground zones. For indoor coverage, the system includes 18 VNS2210 indoor speaker controllers, each powering one or two VNS2083 high-power wall speakers. Outdoor coverage is provided by 15 VNS2200 speaker controllers, each operating a VNS2088 high-power horn speaker for wide-area messaging. The system features automated severe weather alerts through integration with the VS3042 NOAA weather radio receiver, and also supports remote paging via the VS3003 dial-in module, enabling staff to broadcast daily event schedules, public service announcements such as lost children, and real-time overhead messages. The wireless design eliminates the need for trenching or extensive wiring—only AC power is required at each speaker controller location—making it a cost-efficient fairground weather alert solution.