Tech Focus: Venue Sound, Part 2 — Five Sports Venues That Opted for Music-Quality Systems

The investment is paying off for facilities looking beyond sports

Sports stadiums and arenas have become considerably more flexible in recent years, as bondholders require a steadier ROI. That largely takes the form of large-scale music tours, which increasingly expect the venues to have sound systems compatible with the touring audio rigs. Here’s a look at a few of the venues that have met that challenge.

Click here for Tech Focus: Venue Sound, Part 1 — When Sports and Entertainment Intersect, It’s Not Just About the Game.

UBS Arena

Hosting everything from hockey to corporate events, UBS Arena aims for volume and clarity with its JBL sound system.

Opened in 2021, UBS Arena is a 19,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena on Long Island, NY. Besides NHL New York Islanders home games, the venue hosts basketball games, concerts, corporate events, and professional-wrestling broadcasts. Designed by consultant WJHW and installed by integrator Diversified, the arena’s sound system comprises more than 950 JBL loudspeakers — including eight main-bowl arrays of JBL VTX A12 speakers and S28 subwoofers — and a variety of PD Series, AWC Series, VRX Series loudspeakers in balcony, concourse, back-of-house, and delay positions. The entire system is powered by Crown I-Tech Series and DCi Series amplifiers, with network control and signal processing provided by BSS Soundweb London devices.

“We are the multifunction arena here on Long Island, hosting everything from hockey to basketball, large concerts, corporate events, meetings,” says Brian Jones, EIC, AV systems, UBS Arena. “We’re trying to provide the top-level experience for all. When good sound hits you, it’s a physical experience. The JBL system here can really drive that sound to our fans and give them that experience. It’s not just loud; loud can be painful and uncomfortable. This system delivers volume along with clarity. You can still hear it and understand it, and you can still feel it.”

Capital One Arena

The sound system at Capital One Arena was upgraded by Clair Global Integration.

Clair Global Integration was charged with modernizing the sound system at Washington, DC’s Capital One Arena. The project implemented full-range, self-powered adaptive line-array elements, complete with custom flown equipment racks and subwoofer components. An additional 24 full-range loudspeakers cover the upper bowl’s upper quarter, with delays to ensure coherent signal arrival times relative to the main system, and eight self-powered fill speakers cover the court area from the scoreboard.

Wells Fargo Center

At Wells Fargo Center, the Diversified-installed sound system is based on music-tour criteria: full-range musicality and clear intelligibility

Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center recently replaced the bowl speaker clusters with next-generation amplifiers, new mixing equipment, and updated software, delivering improved range, enhanced sound clarity, and optimized balancing throughout the venue. The new sound technology makes the facility both an engaging sports arena and a best-in-class concert venue.

In upgrading the system, Diversified applied the criteria used for concert touring: full-range musicality and clear intelligibility. The L-Acoustics K2 system features K2 and K1-SB speaker arrays on motorized hoists, enabling individual groups of speakers to quickly move out to the grid or drop back into play position to improve sight lines or support various venue configurations. Diversified further remapped the facility’s wiring from the new cluster locations to the amplifier room. Arrays for the new concert-quality system reach the expected sound-pressure levels without obstructing views of video screens, and the system is capable of customized zoning to accommodate different seating configurations. The entire sound system is controlled from a newly designed, more efficient audio-control and -mixing room.

Fleet Farm Arena

Fleet Farm Arena at Tyson Events Center features a new L-Acoustics sound system.

Fleet Farm Arena, formerly Gateway Arena, at Sioux City, IA’s Tyson Events Center is known for hosting PRCA rodeo events, but, in one week, the facility might welcome the full-court basketball antics of the Harlem Globetrotters and, in the next, dazzle everyone’s inner child with a Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live extravaganza. Add to that lineup Disney on Ice, High School Girls Wrestling Regionals, concerts, family shows, corporate events, 30 Sioux City Musketeers ice hockey home games each year, and a half dozen Sioux City Bandits indoor football games.

The center’s new L-Acoustics loudspeaker system features nine arrays of A10i enclosures addressing the arena’s raked, U-shaped seating geometry: six arrays of three A10i Focus over one A10i Wide cover the floor-side seats, and three arrays of three A10i Focus over two A10i Wide address the end-zone audience area. Three additional A10i arrays — two dual-enclosure hangs on the left and right, a single-enclosure central hang — are flown over the opposite end-zone area, which sports a massive wall-mounted video screen. A dozen SB18 IIi subs are flown over the center of the arena’s floor in three hangs of four, with a six-enclosure A10i waterfall array suspended below for floor-fill audio coverage.

“The first event to benefit from our new sound system was a Musketeers hockey match, and it made an immediate difference in the whole atmosphere of the game,” says Nick Palmiotti, GM, Tyson Events Center. “It has totally transformed the environment for our events, especially sports.”

Bryant-Denny Stadium

Bryant-Denny Stadium has a Danley Sound Labs sound-reinforcement system.

“I think they can hear this music in the blimp,” said ESPN analyst Chris Fowler during a live broadcast of the University of Alabama vs. LSU football game. “They did not put in cheap speakers when they redid [the stadium]. They make the experience fun for the fans. A lot of times, [the university] relies on the brand, but now the fans want a show.”

Fowler was referring to Bryant-Denny Stadium, the University of Alabama’s outdoor stadium, home of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team and host to more than 100,000 fans on any given Saturday in the fall. One of the largest football venues in the U.S., the venue is outfitted with a sound-reinforcement system comprising Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers. “Game ops has never been a bigger deal in college football or in sports than right now,” says Kirk Herbstreit, analyst, College GameDay, ESPN. “Visit this stadium and come listen to a seminar on game ops. They’ve got it figured out here.”