This month, we focus on upgrades and installations within sports venues. These include the new L-Acoustics K2 system at BYU’s 18,000-capacity Marriott Center; Smart Systems’ installation of FBT speaker components for 3,000-seat Dalton Stadium in Dalton, GA; Aligned Vision Group’s upgrade for Scotiabank Arena in Toronto to a Meyer Sound Panther System; the new Dynacord-powered Electro-Voice system for Middlesbrough FC in Middlesbrough, UK; and the new 144-speaker RCF system that Smarthouse and Office LLC provided for Adjarabet Arena in Batumi, Georgia in eastern Europe.
BYU Marriott Center, Provo, UT
Brigham Young University’s Marriott Center in Provo, UT has the largest seating capacity of any basketball arena in the Big 12 Conference and the eighth-largest seating capacity of any on-campus basketball arena in the U.S., accommodating nearly 18,000 fans.
Another point of distinction at Marriott Center is its sound. More than a decade ago, the University installed an L-Acoustics Kara PA system for fans watching BYU Cougars men’s and women’s basketball teams. In 2024, just in time for basketball season, Salt Lake City-based Poll Sound installed an L-Acoustics K2 system.
“The venue has sounded great for over a decade, but they wanted it to sound even bigger,” says Poll Sound’s Bryce Stettler. “They wanted a more full-range sound to accommodate more kinds of music, and L-Acoustics K2 was the perfect choice.”
Poll Sound handled commissioning, tuning, and calibration, working with a sound design from Brad Streeter, director of AV Services at BYU’s IT office, who also got an assist from L-Acoustics engineers. Streeter cited “headroom, particularly for sporting events, to be able to get above the noise of the crowd” as the key motivating factor to upgrade much of the system to K2.
Along with sporting events, the venue gets used for a weekly campus-wide devotional, University commencement, music concerts, dance performances and other events, so musicality and intelligibility were other key concerns when deciding upon the sound system.
Eight arrays of nine L-Acoustics K2 each surround the central scoreboard and address the arena’s lower bowl seats, and these are powered by LA12X amplified controllers. Sixteen delayed arrays, each comprised of one Kilo over five Kiva, cover the seating above the concourse, powered by LA4X amplifiers. Two arrays of six repurposed Kara enclosures flown adjacent to the central scoreboard cover the court floor. The system is rounded out by a pair of P1 processors, which feed signals to the amps and speakers over Milan-AVB.
Although most of the Kara from the previous system have been repurposed at other venues on campus, the delay speakers and subwoofers from the earlier installation remain in place. Poll Sound’s Stettler credited the full range K2 elements for boosting the low end as well. “We’re actually getting a lot more low frequency reinforcement from the K2,” he says, also praising the system’s overall intelligibility for big crowds.
Streeter, who also designed the sound for BYU’s School of Music Building, which was competed in 2023, notes that the school’s own engineering team typically works on various systems integration projects, and that the school turns to Poll Sound for larger projects.
The latest upgrade at Marriott Center followed the same design as the previous system in terms of box location and positioning, with a big assist from L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software. “We knew going in that the K2 system would sound and perform great, which really gave us confidence in making this investment.”
BYU Marriott Center
- Capacity: 18,000
- Key Components: L-Acoustics K2
- Integrator: Poll Sound
Dalton Stadium, Dalton, GA
Dalton Stadium, a multi-use field with seating for up to 3,000 attendees for various sporting events, needed a robust sound system that would cover the field, the press box, the concessions area, restrooms and changing rooms and the equipment areas.
Working with FBT distributor Ideal Sound Importers, Smart Systems Inc. was able to provide FBT’s Shadow Series speaker components to produce high-quality sound for the stadium. They mounted full-range loudspeakers of various sizes to the press box and light posts to provide good coverage to the field, home bleachers and visitor’s side bleachers.
Announcements from the press box area can be made via a push-button microphone on the counter for the announcer. The setup also includes a wireless microphone system that is capable of having two handheld microphones and two lapel microphones working at the same time for when announcements need to be made outside the press box at field level.
For the home and visitor side concession stands, Smart Systems installed loudspeakers with volume control mounted inside the concession area. They also equipped changing rooms and all concession building restrooms with in-ceiling speakers.
In the equipment room, Smart Systems installed a rack to house all necessary AV equipment including amplifiers, a CD/media player with Bluetooth, an audio connection for various audio sources such as phones or laptops, a DSP for audio mixing and equalization, and finally power sequencing surge protection for all of the gear.
The stadium now has reliable and effective audio with ample coverage for its expansive new field and surroundings. FBT components include Shadow 142L 14” line array speakers, Shadow 112HC 12” speakers, Shadow 108CT 8” outdoor speakers, Shadow 105T 5” outdoor speakers and CSL 630 TIC 6” coaxial ceiling speakers.
Smart Systems’ GM Noah Stein notes that since providing the FBT gear to Dalton Stadium, his company has since acquired a contract at another similarly sized stadium. “The success of this stadium directly led to another project, which is the best testament to the quality of the products used in any installation,” he says.
Dalton Stadium
- Capacity: Seating for 3,000
- Key Components: FBT Shadow Series
- Integrators: Smart Systems, ISI
Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada
When Scotiabank Arena opted for a major sonic upgrade in 2022, Tyler Rowe had a clear vision for Aligned Vision Group (AV Group) of Toronto. “A premium audio experience in our venue is critical,” says Row, director of venue technology for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. “Audio is an important aspect of bringing a high-energy experience to our fans in the arena and really draws them to a live experience.”
Engineering Harmonics also collaborated on the new sound system’s design, with Meyer Sound’s Canadian distributor, GerrAudio, also playing a key role. Engineering Harmonics’ Martin Van Dijk and GerrAudio’s Ian Robertson also got an assist from Meyer Sound’s director of system optimization Bob McCarthy. The new system is designed to be flexible enough to optimize the different listening experiences for hockey, basketball, and concerts while also offering immersive audio capabilities.
As Rowe notes, sports venues are investing in immersive entertainment as a key driver of that thrilling in-person experience fans just can’t get at home. “You can celebrate here with tens of thousands of other fans that are here to enjoy the moment,” he says, “and a premium audio experience really helps elevate those moments.”
As AV Group partner Andrew Foord points out, the upgrade did not come without some hurdles, including the inherent acoustic challenges of hockey arenas. “We have to be very careful about where arrays are pointed and where we’re putting sound in the building to avoid creating too many reflections,” he says, adding that “the very well-controlled pattern of the Panther cabinets gives us the ability to do that.”
“In basketball, we have extended seating that comes out onto the floor, onto the ice surface,” explains GerrAudio’s Robertson. “In hockey, we don’t want that coverage on the ice, but for basketball, it’s required. We’re using a portion of those speaker arrays to cover the extended audience area for basketball behind the nets on the East and West ends.” For concerts, meanwhile, parts of the system are used for reinforcement in areas that present coverage challenges for touring PAs due to the building’s complex geometry.
The new Meyer Sound system includes eight main arrays of 13 Panther loudspeakers in a mix of wide and narrow-coverage models, four cardioid arrays of 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements, and 26 fills, including Ultra‑X40 compact loudspeakers and UPQ full-size loudspeakers in upper bowl corners, gondola suites, and end zones. Two arrays of nine Leopard compact line array loudspeakers serve as ice fills. The entire system is driven by Galileo Galaxy 816 and 408 Network Platforms and runs on a Milan AVB network, with Meyer Sound’s Spacemap Go providing spatial audio capabilities.
“The placement of the corner arrays and the curved geometry of the arena was ideally suited for the Panther-W’s at the top to extend the coverage along the uppermost seats,” says Meyer Sound’s McCarthy. “The subwoofers have nine going into the long ends of the arena and then five going into the short ends to give you very uniform coverage.” One UPQ, meanwhile, directs sound into the mix area.
Josh Dorn-Fehrmann, Meyer Sound’s senior technical support specialist, highlights the flexibility of system presets: “The drive system utilizes the Galaxy platform, which allows Scotiabank Arena to change the way it uses this room. It can configure the system for basketball and use certain Leopard fills for music and warm-ups. They can turn different speakers on and off depending on whether the hockey boards are in or out. It allows them to use the system in very unique ways, very quickly.”
Because the system is self-powered, the team was able to remove 60 amplifiers from the previous install from upper catwalks and redistribute weight more evenly across the grid. “Meyer Sound Panther is the most powerful, loudest box that they make right now,” says AV Group partner Guy Wallace. “It’s also significantly lighter than comparable boxes. So we were able to put a lot of PA into this facility without adding significant weight load…not to mention the pristine sound and excellent coverage we get out of these boxes.”
From all accounts, the sonic improvement is a game changer, says Rowe. “What we’ve heard so far is really exciting. It’s an experience that has been missing in this venue for some time. And I’m really thrilled for our engineers and our operators to really have a sense of pride of ownership in being able to put this Meyer Sound product forward.”
“We are beyond excited to be a part of this project,” says GerrAudio VP Peter Snelgrove. “To have this venue that houses two top-level teams equipped with a Meyer Sound system that will be heard and experienced by all fans — we couldn’t be prouder or more excited for game day.”
Scotiabank Arena
- Capacity: 20,000
- Key Components: Meyer Sound Panther
- Integrators: AV Group
Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, UK
Middlesbrough FC’s 35,000-capacity Riverside Stadium, which has hosted men’s and women’s soccer games as well as concerts since it opened in 1995, had been falling short of sonic perfection. “Our PA system was in need of a full upgrade,” recalls Middlesborough FC’s Helena Bowman.
The club called in UK Audio Engineering to design and install a new system. “We presented an Electro-Voice and Dynacord solution and gave the board a demo of what we would do,” says UK Audio Engineering’s Jordan Alderton, who got the green light to move forward.
Timing was tight. “The Riverside hosts concerts throughout the summer, so we couldn’t do the installation in the usual quiet period for football clubs,” Alderton recalls. “We were able to get the back of house infrastructure done in July, then we needed to build, program and test the racks in our facility in Nottingham before we were able to go in for the final installation during the international break in October. It was an intense two weeks, but we were able to get everything done.”
The pro sound system covering the stadium bowl includes 68 EVH arrayable horn-loaded loudspeakers, which have been flown in pairs from the stadium roof to cover the stands. These are driven by five IPX10:8 amplifiers and controlled via a pair of MXE5 Matrix Mix Engines. To complete the life safety part of the installation, a Praesensa public address and voice alarm system was also installed.
Alderton credited both his company’s experience with Electro-Voice and Dynacord products along with the manufacturer’s support for getting the whole job done despite the time constraints. “When you do hit challenges on these projects, the speed that they come back to you with a new design and solutions is where we want it to be and what you want to be working with.”
The client, meanwhile, is very happy with the result. “We now have a system which provides clear sound across the stadium,” states Bowman. “It also offers enhanced control, allowing us to quickly and easily adjust levels as needed. Additionally, the system can feed individual zones of the stadium with customized paging. Music and announcements delivered through the system are sharp, clear, and rich.” She also credited UK Audio Engineering’s team for being “professional, accessible and hardworking. “The end outcome has provided us with a real improvement in our match day operations and fan experience.”
Middlesbrough FC / Riverside Stadium
- Capacity: 35,000
- Key Components: Electro-Voice EVH
- Integrators: UK Audio Engineering
Adjarabet Arena, Batumi, Georgia
Construction of 20,035-capacity Adjarabet Arena, the new home stadium for FC Dinamo Batumi, began in Jan. 2018. Along with games featuring Georgia’s national soccer and rugby teams, Adjarabet Arena is equipped to host a variety of cultural events.
The stadium, designed and built by Bahadır Kul Architects and Anagi Construction, meets UEFA’s Category IV standards with a creative design of overlapping panels inspired by the swirling motions of traditional Georgian dances.
Smarthouse and Office LLC, the official RCF distributor in Georgia, designed and provided the audio system, which includes 144 of RCF’s P 5228-L loudspeakers powered by 18 QPS 9600 amplifiers. Six DX1616 digital audio matrix processors manage audio routing and processing for the venue, which opened in Oct. 2020.
“Collaborating with RCF allowed us to implement an audio system that not only met but exceeded international standards, providing an unparalleled experience for all attendees,” said Smarthouse and Office’s Konstantine Beruchashvili.
Adjarabet Arena
- Capacity: 20,035
- Key Components: RCF P 5228-L, QPS 9600
- Integrators: UK Audio Engineering
