Jobing.com Arena, Arizona
CONSTRUCTED JUST over four years ago, Jobing.com Arena is home to the Phoenix Coyotes and the Arizona Sting lacrosse team. The 17,500-seat arena was recently subject to a major sound system upgrade consisting chiefly of L-Acoustics components.

An array-based installation was conceived by Dan Palmer, L-Acoustics’ national sales manager in the US, in co-operation with Phoenix-based AVDB (Audio Video Design Build) Group and is based on a configuration designed by Palmer in 2006 for the St Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. Installation of the system was completed in just one month by AVDB Group.

AVDB’s group director of engineering, Nathaniel Hall, and sales engineer Jamie Gillespie – who also mixes sound for Coyotes’ home games at the arena – took Palmer’s original concept and built a job-specific L-Acoustics Soundvision model, adding several enhancements to the original prototype system design, including additional dV-DOSC cabinets and SB28 subwoofers.

Complete, the system comprised 72 dV-DOSC active two-way, 12 dV-SUB and 16 SB28 enclosures, including all of the rigging. The cabinets are powered by a total of 19 L-Acoustics LA8 four-channel, 1,800-Watt amplified controllers. Six identical line arrays made up of 12 dV-DOSC cabinets each and topped with two dV-Sub subwoofers are suspended from high-steel rigging points: two facing each of the seating areas along the long sides of the arena and one at each end.

“The Jobing.com Arena’s sound system was designed using our Soundvision software directly from the venue’s CAD drawings,” Palmer says. “Through detailed system modeling of the arena we could verify coverage, acoustic accuracy and the SPL levels deemed acceptable for the installation. Since the six dV-DOSC line-source arrays cover all audience levels – lower, middle, club and upper – no delay speakers are required; the two dV-Subs per array provide mid-bass reinforcement, while the SB28s were included for enhanced sub-bass LF coverage.

“Because of undesirable reflections, most ice-related events specifically request that no direct audio hits the ice surface,” he continues. “The DOSC waveguide used in dV-DOSC creates a precision cylindrical wavefront that can be focused above the glass to the seating areas, with only minor low-frequency spherical energy at ice level, which yields outstanding results. Also, since the focus of the system is above the boards, the glass will provide less interference for broadcast engineers and an enhanced experience for the spectator.”

Stadium Tertutup, Malaysia
LOCATED AT Gong Badak in the Malaysian peninsular’s north-eastern Terengganu state, Stadium Tertutup is part of the bigger Terengganu Sports Complex. Built by the country’s government with the intention of attracting international sports-related tourism to the country, the 12,000-capacity dome offers the very latest indoor sports and conference facilities.

The stadium is completely enclosed and features a large Alcons system, comprising 48 LR14 pro-ribbon arrays and 16 LR14B subs, flown in 16 clusters of three LR14 and one LR14B. 12 arrays are spaced equidistantly around a catwalk on the circular roof to cover the main seats, while four are located on a frame that hangs down from the centre of the roof, covering the central area and additional retractable seating. 16 Alcons ALC2 amplifiers power the system, with a 32-channel Soundcraft GB832 mixer and Sennheiser wireless microphones providing input. System processing is by a four-in, eight-out Dolby Lake processor. System calibration was achieved using EAW Smaart V.6.

“The Alcons System was chosen for its superior speech intelligibility and the excellent 120 by 15-degree coverage of the arrays,” says Muraly Archunan, the project manager for Rapid Orbit, which carried out the installation. “We had to do a demo of the system before we were awarded the contract and intelligibility was the primary concern, as the main purpose of the system is announcements during sports events. Coverage was also a key issue, as the sound is broadcast at quite an acute angle from the 12 clusters beneath the catwalk. Load factor on the catwalk was also a major factor.”

As a government-funded facility, it was also necessary that officials of the administration and legislation were satisfied with the results of the installation.

“State Minister Datuk Ahmad Said was extremely impressed with the system during a forum organised by the state in May,” adds Archunan. “The stadium was also used for one of Mayalsia’s most important sporting events, the Sukma XII Games, at which the coverage and intelligibility of the Alcons system was praised by Datuk Abdul Rahin Dato Mohd Said, Malaysia’s sport secretariat chief for the event.”

National Stadium, Beijing
THE CENTREPIECE of the recent Olympic games, Beijing’s national stadium, now known the world over as ‘The Bird’s Nest’, spans a huge 333 metres by 298 metres and seats over 91,000 spectators. Following success in Athens in 2004, digital network specialist Optocore was again handed the task of distributing audio signals to multiple locations around the venue, during events watched by a global television audience estimated at five billion.

Using experience garnered from past events where audiences have exceeded one million, system designer Gary Hardesty worked with production staff and Optocore to create a design based on five redundant bidirectional multimode fibre rings. This was created and installed by Bei Ao, with the help of Leifull, China’s Optocore distributor. The five rings allowed isolated distribution to the playing field, second seating level, roof located speakers and house system via the control room. A fifth ring provided remote preamp inputs on the centre stage and VIP area signal returns only used during the opening and closing nights.

The main arena sound system – designed and deployed by ACE (Advanced Communication Equipment), led by Terry Lo and Bingo Tso – consisted of substantial JBL Vertec line arrays, complemented by 26 JBL MS26 loudspeakers (for the VIP area), 60 JBL PRX512M loudspeakers (distributed throughout the arena) and powered by more than 150 Crown I-Tech series amplifiers.

All signals from the main control room were processed by Meyer Sound Galileo loudspeaker management processors, which fed adjacent Optocore X6P-16-in and X6-out AD converter modules, in turn connected to DD32E network devices, which in turn were connected to the fibre run throughout the building. Via Optocore’s software, any signal could be routed to any of the amplifier rack locations, where additional DD32E and X6-16-out units converted the signal from digital back to analog.

“The real big plus is the pristine quality audio that the audience gets,” notes Hardesty. “The X series preamps are up there with the best I’ve heard and when packaged with the Meyer through an invisible transport media, it yields astounding results.

“Our engineers now actually get to mix a show that has nuances, as opposed to years ago where massive systems lacked the subtlety and the challenge was more about distributing the audio than presenting it.”

Sparkassen Arena, Germany
SINCE THE 2007 world championship victory, handball has become a staple sport in Germany. Nowhere is this more true than in the Lower Saxony town of Hildesheim, where an increasing number of fans convinced the Stadt und Sporthallen (Town and Sports Hall Company) to invest three million euros converting the Pappelallee sports hall, a rather rough-looking concrete block originally built in 1957 with room for only 900 spectators, into the 2,435-capacity Sparkassen Arena.

Engineering company AMT was contracted to carry out an acoustic survey. It suggested measures focused on reducing reverberation in order to improve speech intelligibility and it was agreed that perforated, profiled sheeting would be fitted to the ceiling over the north-east and north-west stands. In addition, for music events, the stands can be separated with Molton curtains to further reduce reverberation time. After this a local installation company, Audio Werft, turned its attention to the installed PA system.

The heart of the system is a Yamaha DME24N digital processor, a digital mixing engine that receives microphone and line signals and amplifies, converts, routes, and processes them. After the initial AD conversion, the signal travels through a programmable routing matrix and then through user-configurable DSP components, essential for mix and loudspeaker management. The signals are then transmitted to the Yamaha power amplifiers (six XP7000s, three P2500Ss and one XH200) via the DME outputs and finally sent to the loudspeaker system.

In the arena itself, Audio Werft’s MD, Matthias Mehler, and his event technology specialist, Simon Buchholz, fitted 18 Yamaha Installation series full-range loudspeakers (IF2115 in passive mode), suspended directly above the stands. Additional loudspeakers positioned in the dining hall, foyer, and other areas of the stadium included eight JBL Contractor and 26 Penton 100V ceiling loudspeakers – all of which are also controlled by the DME24N.

“Depending on the budget, in an arena of this size there will inevitably be problems, especially with the sound, but these can soon be dealt with by making small compromises,” explains Mehler. “In this case our task was not to turn the arena into a huge disco, but to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility for the public. So, a pitch sound was ruled out.”

Centre Court, Wimbledon
THE ALL England Lawn Tennis Club’s three-year plan to transform the centre court at the home of the sport’s most important tournament, Wimbledon, is almost complete, with only the final phase – the addition of 1,200 more seats and a retractable roof – yet to be undertaken.

As part of the first phase of redevelopment, royal warrant holder RG Jones was enlisted to carry out a comprehensive overhaul of the arena’s audio network. Following a successful installation at the venue in 2002 – one of the largest deployments ever of BSS Audio’s Soundweb Original Green DSP series – RG Jones decided once again to fit the devices, this time opting for the brand new London Blu units.

“The limitations with the old system were the amount of networked audio channels you could get and since we have expanded the system every year, we needed to increase the routing,” says RG Jones’ sales and installation manager, Jon Berry. “This would have required nearly 20 extra hubs. Blu link gave us no less than 256 channels of networked audio. On top of this, the eight Sharc cards provide four times the processing power, enabling us to create lots of matrices of the signal without any risk of running out of processing capacity.”

The matrix was developed around three Blu-800 and 27 Blu-160 units. System control is located in the broadcast centre PA room, where it is monitored and controlled using a HiQnet London Architect GUI, developed largely by Duncan Owen, who worked on the 2002 refit, and displayed on four large LCD displays. A mirrored control system is also installed in the ‘bunker’ – the Centre Court PA room.

With the new network up and running, Berry faced a second challenge: installing a brand new PA system on a temporary basis, in time for the 2008 Championships, which could then be removed in preparation for the third phase of redevelopment. This required that all speakers were located in the fixed part of the roof and provided even coverage throughout, without feedback from the umpire’s mic.

After assistance from Ease software expert, Peter Child, the team decided on a purpose-designed AM Series Stadium system from Martin Audio. However, due to the large amount of air conditioning ductwork carried in the roof, there was little free space in which to operate and the Ease plot had to be remodelled several times to gain the best position options available.

Over 70 AM10s – specifically designed for use in stadiums and arenas where high SPL and weather resistance are critical – were eventually fitted, driven by 12 QSC ISA 800Ti 100V line amps and split into 24 four-wire speaker circuits. In the fullness of time, RG Jones plans to implement separate line monitoring as part of a full PA and VA system.

“The original consultant’s spec had multiple rings of ceiling speakers utilising five different models, which would have entailed high installation costs,” says Peter Child. “After studying the venue drawings I proposed a simpler and easier system to install, utilising front and rear facing AM10 loudspeakers, which offered uniform coverage and good intelligibility.”

Energy Solutions Arena, Utah
HOME TO  the Utah Jazz NBA (basketball) team since 1991, Salt Lake City’s Energy Solutions Arena was recently furnished with a brand new Electro-Voice XLC sound system for the 20,500 fans that it regularly packs in.

Comprising 52 XLC 127DVX loudspeakers deployed in four arrays – two consisting of 12 elements and a further two consisting of four – the new system provides seamless coverage to the arena’s upper and lower bowls. FRX+640 loudspeakers were installed beneath the scoreboard for full-court coverage. The system is powered by 29 P3000RL remote-controlled amplifiers and controlled and supervised via two NetMax N8000 digital matrix controllers running Iris-Net software with Fir-Drive.

“Our goal was to provide vocal intelligibility on every seat,” says Craig Hylton of Performance Audio, which installed the system. “I walked the building, talked to people and everyone in the upper bowl noticed the difference immediately. For years it’s been hard to hear the announcer clearly up there.”

Key EV team members included tech support engineer Robert Deyarmond, who designed the Ease model for the arena. George Georgallis was also instrumental, assisting Craig Hylton in writing the Iris-Net file using Fir filters to optimise system performance – especially in terms of coverage. Dave Larsen was on hand for sales support, along with Monte Wise for his respected system design and tuning expertise.

 “The first design called for six arrays,” says Hylton, “but I asked EV if complete coverage could be achieved with four. Combined with the 120-degree horizontal dispersion pattern of the XLC boxes, the Fir filters gave us the precision and control to make that happen. This is a large space and I was sceptical at first, but it worked wonderfully.”

 “The system is a dream come true for Energy Solutions; it saves both space and money,” adds Hylton. “The control of the amps and the system monitoring through Iris-Net is fabulous – it’s what they’ve always wanted in there. The amount of equipment we replaced with nothing more than just the two NetMax controllers was extraordinary – about three racks worth, and I don’t know how much wire.”