You may have noticed a basketball arena on the cover of this month’s issue — specifically San Antonio’s AT&T Center, which now features a 72-box L-Acoustics Kudo system, as part of its recent $110-million revamp. That is one of the new sports facility installations we’ve spotlighted, beginning on page 36 (you can link to the story here). And there’s a good reason to have that as a focus this month.
With the Stanley Cup playoffs underway, the (never-ending) basketball finals in a full court press and the summer touring season kicking off, all eyes are on arenas this month. Of course it’s not just arenas, as baseball stadiums are in full swing and sheds are completing their spring thaw in preparation for a busy performance summer. For the live sound industry, these are all the true signs of spring, which in our case, means spring back to work.
Multipurpose — A Modern Concept?
With any modern arena, the keyword is multipurpose, with ability to handle a diverse array of events, ranging from every manner of sports to concerts, religious assemblies, circuses, wrestling matches, tractor pulls, monster truck rallies, ice shows, etcetera. The concept is nothing new, in fact, it harkens back to the days of the Coliseum of Rome, which — built in 80 AD — was the original model of a multipurpose venue, and built to host gladiator fights, animal hunts, mock sea battles, dramatic performances, executions, battle reenactments, chariot races and more.
The ancient Greeks had an amazing understanding of acoustics, as employed in their classic amphitheater designs, where a single unamplified voice could easily address hundreds of audience members. Yet quite not so with the Romans, where the emphasis was on the spectacle, rather than the syllable.
Flash-forward to the present, and the multipurpose arena concept is still with us. Modern sound systems can truly enhance the fan experience and in many facilities, the sound attendees hear via during game playbacks is probably way better than they would have in their living rooms or local sports bar. And these days, it not just about intelligibility (although that is still important, too) but also the ability of subwoofers to deliver a feel-it-in-the-chest thumping that rivals any festival rock ‘n’ roll system.
The other side of current arena or stadium designs is to create a bowl-style roof structure intended to amplify (or at least retain) the screaming and howling of the fans. There are many installs of this nature to be found throughout the U.S. I’m not actually sure if other countries also do this, but a good example of this is CenturyLink Field, the multipurpose (there’s that word again) stadium that’s the home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. In this particular venue, which I’m sure “coincidentally” boosts fan noise, the effect is so dramatic that the local Seahawkians refer to the effect as the “12th player” on the squad, as it definitely impedes the ability of rival teams to hear their signals during games. I am sure a knowledgeable team of acousticians could be brought in to remedy this noise “problem,” but I seriously doubt any hardcore Seattle fans would be up for creating a GoFundMe campaign to pay for the work.
The Music Dilemma
All of this is fine and good (at least for sports), but typically, on the list of design parameters for any arena or stadium, great acoustics for concerts does not rank high among the wish list. This is not entirely an afterthought, as venue owners do like the idea of filling those empty nights when the team is out of town or during the off-season with concert bookings. However, any way you put it, the bottom line is we’re stuck with trying to create a living room sound into a hockey rink or basketball arena. It can be done, but it ain’t easy.
One of the problems stems from the layout itself. During sports matches, the sound usually emanates from somewhere near the center-hung scoreboard. So here, the throw from the speaker enclosures to the fans is relatively short and the sound is aimed downward into the seats, rather than into the side walls and ceiling. In a typical “stage at one end of the venue” music show, the audio throws are much longer and may be aimed upward to include those upper deck nosebleed seats, and at least some portion of the audio will end up in that very live “amplify the fans” ceiling and slapping off the back wall.
Dealing with all these issues is not insurmountable. Fortunately, with the right tools, such as a versatile line array system, cardioid subwoofers, prediction software, measurement / analysis apps and (perhaps most important of all) an experienced, well-tuned set of ears, the impossible becomes reality — night after night.
Congrats to Greg Mackie!
This month, the Parnelli Board of Advisors are pleased to announce Greg Mackie as the recipient of the 2016 Audio Innovator award, and we at FRONT of HOUSE could hardly imagine anyone more deserving. There’s a lot more to his career — including founding TAPCO and Mackie and his more recent work in third-party digital console designs — but the Mackie CR-1604 16-channel mixer, unveiled more than a quarter century ago, spawned a revolution of its own.
In fact, there’s hardly anyone working in audio today who hasn’t worked with one of those little wonders, that over the years, changed both an entire industry and touched hundreds of thousands of users. So congratulations on the Parnelli nod and a collective thanks from all of us.
