When construction ended on Reynolds Coliseum in 1949, the men’s basketball team finally had a facility with enough capacity to accommodate the droves of students and alumni who had crowded into Frank Thompson Gymnasium since 1925.

But the 9,000 seat arena wasn’t enough for coach Everett Case, who lobbied to expand the north and south ends of Reynolds so the gymnasium could seat 12,000 fans.

And while removing the steel framework in order to elongate the Old Barn was pivotal in giving the Wolfpack the home-court advantage Case was seeking, a shoddy pole with light bulbs on it also helped.

The bulbs and pole made up Case’s “noise meter”, a device that informed the crowd how loud it was getting by lighting up from bottom to top as the crowd cheered louder. The two bulbs at the top of the “meter” were colored red as an incentive for the fans to get even louder, and Case’s home-court advantage was definite as he compiled a 377-34 record in his 17  year tenure at State.

But what the fans didn’t know (or chose not to believe) was the meter was controlled by a technician with a knob who turned the lights on when the crowd got rowdy.

More than a half-century later, undergraduates in the College of Engineering are working to make Case’s noise meter a reality again not only in appearance, but in function as well.

“[The noise meter] was really popular until everyone found out it was a dude with a dial turning it up and down,” James Coleman, a senior in electrical engineering, said. “[Student Body President Jay Dawkins] proposed an actual noise meter instead of getting something fake to get the popularity back.”

“I was like ‘lets do it!'”

Dawkins and Student Government sponsored one of the senior design projects for students to choose from, and the design team of Coleman, Mark  Abernathy, a senior in computer science and computer engineering, Margaret Boro, a senior in computer and electrical engineering and Joshua Wilson, a senior in electrical engineering, jumped at the chance.

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“There’s nothing that really popped up until I saw [the noise meter project,]” Boro said. “We don’t really have an automated noise meter and this is our chance to show what we’ve learned in our engineering program.”

The project is in its last weeks of production, the team said, as the April 28 deadline approaches, though Boro said the noise meter should be completed before mid-April.

“We’ve set a deadline for ourselves,” Boro said. “We’re on schedule to have it completed by the first or second week of April.”

But although the noise meter, which is planned to be an eight foot replica of the Memorial Bell Tower, is near completion, the newest addition to the Wolfpack fan base doesn’t have a name yet.

“Dawkins came up with the idea of leaving it up to the student body [ to decide,]” Boro said. “So we came up with some sample names and we just kinda ran with it.”

The names, which ranged from “YellTower” to “Pack Attack”, were listed online for students to vote on with a write-in contest. The student who came up with the best name, as chosen by Student Government, would have the opportunity to be the first person to operate the noise meter and have the contributed name appear on a final ballot.

“The first round we got a good consensus,” Coleman said. “We had some names people came up with.”

Brittany Hall, a freshman in First Year College, entered the winning name, suggesting the replica Tower be called the “Howlometer”

Coleman said the final vote tally will be counted within the next few weeks, but said a prototype was tested in Winston-Salem and worked fine.

“We took a prototype to [the Wake Forest game],” Coleman said. “And it worked perfectly.”

And the finished product will be customizable depending on the venue where it’s used, from the hallowed acoustics of Reynolds to wide open Carter-Finley

“You have some games that aren’t as loud as others,” Coleman said. “If you want to take it to volleyball it wouldn’t be a problem [because] we can adjust the sensitivity of the meter.”

Coleman said the meter will also have wheels so it’s easily portable, and the large size of should guarantee it can be seen from anywhere in the stadium. The team has also made sure to be cost effective with its structure, using wood and particle board instead of more expensive materials.

“We built the skeleton out of wood,” Coleman said. “[We wanted] something cost effective and quick to build with.”

Beyond getting credit for their project, though, the design team said the prospect of leaving their mark on the University was what truly drew them to the project.

“It’s a great feeling to leave something behind that the University is going to use,” Abernathy said. “Being able to leave something [here] that you can turn on the TV years from now and watch your noise meter being shown on ESPN is just going to be be flat out cool.”

Coleman said giving back to the University was a big deal to him, too.

“Leaving some type of legacy to show your gratitude to the University is a huge honor,” Coleman said.