Audio installations and upgrades within sports facilities typically present severe challenges to integrators and system designers. Perhaps the most formidable of these is the sheer scale of multiple coverage areas. The latter often entails working with enormous, cavernous open-air spaces while also delivering an acceptable listening experience to everyone occupying the seats, whether fans are courtside or in the upper “nosebleed” seats of an arena or — in a stadium project — on the grandstand, bleachers, end-zones or beneath a second or third deck.
Meanwhile, with the rise of multi-use facilities, such as baseball one day, football the next — or basketball/hockey shared with concerts, the situation facing the audio system designer become that much more complex.
The task is further complicated by issues such as reverberation and intelligibility — particularly in enclosed spaces. Another significant factor to be considered is the exuberance of the fans themselves, and the need for the P.A. system to be heard above crowd noise that can easily peak at 105 dB or more. Last but not least are the challenges of getting the entire installation performed correctly, safely, on time and on budget, when those two invaluable commodities — time and money — are so often in scarce supply.
With that in mind, we decided to look into seven widely divergent recent sports facility installation projects. Each of these were entirely different, not only in capacity, but also in system/venue criteria, yet all with successful outcomes that worked for all concerned — designers, integrators, teams, management, and most of all, the fans.
To download a PDF of the May 2017 FOH Installations Spotlight feature, CLICK HERE.
