Built nearly 40 years ago, the Coors Events Center (CEC) at the University of Colorado Boulder has had major upgrades, but the original PA system had never been replaced. The 23,000-square-foot facility hosts regular NCAA Pac-12 Colorado Buffaloes basketball and volleyball games, and has hosted presidential primary debates, presidential addresses and major music acts, so it was definitely overdue for an audio overhaul.
UC-Boulder staff selected a Bose Professional RoomMatch DeltaQ speaker system as a replacement audio system solution. Bose Professional personnel worked with them and Englewood, CO-based AV solutions provider AVI Systems to design a system that would accommodate every type of event that the multi-purpose venue might host.
Ten arrays arranged in a rectangle above the court cover the audience seating bowl with two downward-firing arrays providing on-court coverage. In the main system, two arrays facing each side of the court are configured, from top to bottom, with two RM7010 RoomMatch modules to cover the upper seating and with an RM9020 and an RM9040 module below to extend coverage to the courtside seats.
At both the north and south ends of the court is a single array configured with an RM9010 cabinet at the top and three RM9020 modules below. Above each corner of the court, covering the wedge-shaped seating beneath, is an array consisting of an RM7010, an RM9020, an RM7020, and an RM5520 module. Two hangs each of two RM9010 modules directly above the free-throw lines deliver audio to the players and officials on the court. A single, centrally located line array of six RMS215 dual 15-inch subwoofers provides low-frequency extension. A separate five-box array and a small delay array are intended to provide voice reinforcement for events taking place on the stage area at the arena’s north end.
A total of 40 RoomMatch Utility RMU108 two-way surface-mount speakers on a 70V distributed network are installed on the concourse level, in the restrooms, and at the building’s entrances. Additionally, UC-Boulder chose an Audinate Dante-based audio-over-IP system for the entire building. Within the arena, wall panels around the court are networked over fiber to the control room on the upper level. Additional input panels are located at the halfway line and at the north and south ends of the court, and connected to the facility’s digital audio console in the control room via Dante.
Steve Pizzi, UC-Boulder’s assistant athletics director, says the staff is pleased with the improved SPL and clarity of the system. More importantly, now that 21st-century sports fans expect more from an event than simply watching the game, the upgraded sound system can deliver on those expectations. “We’re in the entertainment business now,” he said.
PRODUCT AT WORK
Bose Professional RoomMatch DeltaQ
Choice of different vertical coverage patterns gives designers the flexibility to choose the number of boxes in arrays based on output level, coverage control, and budgets, without sacrificing coverage.
