TORONTO – When considering a new sound reinforcement system for BMO Field in Toronto, Westbury National and AV distributor SFM looked to the Fulcrum Acoustic line for the AH Series of compact, two-way, full-range loudspeakers as a viable solution. “Integrated DSP and amplification was a primary goal on this project,” says Andrew Foord of Westbury National.
More details from SFM (www.sfm.ca):
Toronto-based Westbury National recently installed a new sound reinforcement system at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada’s first purpose-built, soccer-specific stadium. The stadium is currently home to the country’s national soccer team, the Toronto FC professional club, and most recently, the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. The two-phase project began in 2015 with the addition of a 9,000-seat upper deck to the stadium’s east side as well as the addition of a continuous concourse level, enhancement to washrooms, concessions and executive VIP spaces. This was followed by the construction of a canopy above the east, west and south stands.
Westbury National, which has served the venue since its inception, once again worked closely with management on key sound reinforcement facets.
“We knew from the beginning that the installation of the canopy would necessitate a new sound reinforcement system,” says Andrew Foord, director of design and engineering at Westbury National. “Before the canopy could be erected, two primary lighting poles, which were also key as mounting position for the existing point-source sound system, were removed. It was clear that a distributed venue-wide approach with loudspeakers flown from the canopy structure and catwalks would deliver optimum full-range coverage to every seat.”
Westbury National enjoys a long working relationship with leading Canadian AV distributor SFM, with the two parties consulting on this project. In looking at the Fulcrum Acoustic line exclusively distributed in Canada by SFM, the AH Series of compact, two-way, full-range loudspeakers presented a viable solution to the distributed system approach. The bi-amplified AH Series provides several coverage pattern options, all with multiple drivers feeding a proprietary Compression Head coaxial horn architecture.
“They proved to be a perfect fit,” Foord notes. “The boxes have excellent fidelity and offered plenty of design flexibility. The fact that they require less power was a nice bonus and ended up saving our customer unnecessary amplifier expense.”
The system incorporates six individual hangs of one AH96 (90- by 60-degree dispersion) loudspeaker covering the south side stands; six hangs of two AH96 loudspeakers covering the west side; and six hangs of one AH96 and two AH65 (60- by 45-degree dispersion) loudspeakers for the largest seating area on the east side. Audio power is delivered by QSC CXD amplifiers located in four climate-controlled racks in the east and west catwalks.
“Integrated DSP and amplification was a primary goal on this project,” Foord says. “The CXD amps provide a dense number of channels and plenty of power for the rack space they occupy. With Q-SYS, we were able to supply extensive networking distribution that’s fully redundant – great for sound reinforcement and also critical for life-safety paging capabilities.” With limited access to the workspace while the canopy was being installed, Foord and Doug Wildeboer, senior project manager at Westbury National, devoted considerable front-end time to planning the logistics of the installation, critical given the tight timeframe. Custom loudspeaker cluster brackets were designed and fabricated to allow pre-assembly, also pre-wired with multi-pin connectors prior to arriving at the job site. In addition, every cluster was thoroughly tested at the shop. The planning process also addressed how to most efficiently install clusters weighing up to 600 pounds at heights sometimes reaching 80 feet above the raked seating, with construction logistics ruling out driving in a scissor lift.
“Ultimately we devised a rolling scaffold structure that allowed us to roll each cluster to where it needed to be flown and attached,” Wildeboar says. “The scaffold not only saved a lot of time, but also a lot of physical labor. As a result, we only needed a moderate-sized crew, which also helped keep the cost down.”
The meticulous planning payed off significantly, with the entire system in place within 14 days to leave plenty of time for tuning before the first game. The new system was tuned in the midst of the chaos of getting the re-vamped venue ready for game day. “When we did the client walk-through, it was clearly a success,” Foord adds. “One of the things the owners noted was the linear coverage throughout the stadium. To Fulcrum’s credit, it is indeed outstanding. Walking the venue. you literally can’t tell the difference when you pass from the coverage zone of one cluster to another.”
