Sports fans in Omaha are benefitting from improved sound at basketball and hockey games following an extensive upgrade of loudspeakers at the city’s multi-purpose arena.
Outfitted with Meyer Sound’s Leopard sound system, the CHI Health Center in North Downtown neighbourhood of Nebraska’s largest city is able to offer an enhanced listening experience for its audiences in addition to the visual spectacles they have primarily arrived for.
Equipped with audio reinforcement technology, the 18,300-seat arena’s new system replaces a point source cluster from Meyer Sound that had been in place since the venue first opened its doors back in 2003.
“The durability and craftsmanship of the old speakers outlasted most of the rest of the system”, said Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority’s (MECA) manager of audio-video technology, Gino Meyer.
“So when it came to upgrade to the latest in line array technology, going with a new Meyer Sound system was a no brainer.”
Having worked extensively with Alpha Video on their visual systems, MECA consulted the firm alongside Meyer Sound Design Services. The planning process began in 2018, with the installation accomplished within two compressed time windows in the summer and late fall of 2019.
Now completed, the system features 88 Leopard line array loudspeakers configured in six hangs with four arrays of 16 each at the corners for near and far throw, and two of 12 each for the end arrays with a shorter throw.
For low end impact, the 12,900-low frequency control (LFC) elements are deployed in four cardiod arrays, with two LF arrays of three each flown over the end arrays and two on the sides between the corner arrays. Drive and processing is courtesy of five Galaxy 816 network platforms, with three RM Servers implementing remote system monitoring.
Testing on behalf of the principal user of the venue, director of marketing and broadcast services for Creighton University Athletics, Joe Willman, said, “The new system certainly has delivered, whether you are courtside or in the last row, you get clear intelligibility and enhanced dynamic range.
“We have revised the way we create content for the venue, knowing that we have a lot more room to play with as far as what we’re putting into the system and now when the opening video plays and the sound booms, the fans really know it’s game time.”
