Williams-Brice Stadium bets on L-Acoustics Serie A distributed sound

The new distributed audio system of L-Acoustics It offers the coverage and power necessary for this stage of the University of South Carolina (Us.), after solving the important design challenges in its architecture.

Known for being one of the American football stadiums with the highest fan atmosphere, Williams-Brice It is the seat of the Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina, while this energetic enthusiasm of his followers translates into a very noisy environment and, sometimes, Annoying for visiting teams.

In order to solve this situation and taking advantage of the fact that they had to renew their sound system before the season, Its managers turned to the US integrator Cignal Systems, belonging to the AV and lighting provider Logic Systems, to deploy a A15i system of L-Acoustics, according to the technical design made by Idibri, a company of O'Brien Rooms.

With capacity currently for 80.000 people, Williams-Brice Stadium has had numerous renovations that have changed its design and geometry., to the point of having a large balcony, an unusual element in such a stadium, so it was almost obligatory to install a Distributed sound system, In front of the point source that is located at one end of the enclosure.

In fact, was the first college football stadium to have an A15i system installed in a distributed design configuration. for Chip Self, CEO of Cignal Systems, "The PA has hundreds of speakers in every seat in the venue., and now there is Fourteen types of arrangements, ranging from a single box to six or seven boxes each".

The L-Acoustics system comprises 318 Speakers, Including 67 A15i Focus and 139 A15i Wide, with 75 Coaxial X12 and 37 X8 , all powered by a combination of 53 LA4X amplified drivers and 29 of the model 2Xi. "It's a complex system., designed by Casey Sherred and Ben Cating, by Idibri, but it sounds amazing and covers all the seats evenly and consistently.", points out Self.

Coverage has been a key objective of this project. In fact, The university wanted to replace the old scoring zone system with better, more nuanced coverage and requested a distributed system approach..

As Casey Sherred points out, Senior Acoustics and Technology Consultant at Idibri, "A distributed system like the one made with the Series A gives them the coverage they wanted., But it has also allowed us to adapt the system to different parts of the system to Improve the fan experience, to make it stronger in the student sections and less in the suites".

The A15i system offers a Low frequency extension to 40 hz, No need for subwoofers in the design. "Further low-frequency optimization is achieved by AutoFilter application of full range, he adds.. This is possible thanks to the integration of the Soundvision of L-Acoustics with Network Manager. Filter settings are automatically imported into amplified drivers, which meant a great saving of work and time".

However, The biggest challenge of the project was to assemble the speakers, since many of them had to be fixed to the bottom of the balcony protrusion, built in poured concrete, which inevitably includes inconsistencies in the texture of the material due to anomalies such as air pockets, in addition to addressing problems of orientation and sound coverage.

This was a completely new approach to installing the speakers.. Cignal Systems integrators first fixed the machined aluminum plates connecting the speakers, They then fixed the main brackets using precisely placed anchors., ensuring that the distance was sufficient to avoid forcing the balcony at any point.

"A combination of the power and light weight of the A15i, in addition to the variety of patterns and waveguides available for each type of box, provided the flexibility required by this project, as it allowed us to hang the boxes higher than normal and meet the requirement of not interfering with sight lines", concludes Self.

Other articles on Audio Logic Systems, Cignal Systems, Williams-Brice Stadium, Idibri Consulting, L-Acoustics, O'brien Rooms, University of South Carolina