Spartan Stadium has been home to the Michigan State University Spartans since 1923. With a capacity exceeding 75,000, the venue regularly hosts some of the largest crowds in college football, creating an intense and highly demanding acoustic environment. The stadium has undergone significant renovations and expansions over its history, including the addition of luxury suites and club seating.
Yet behind the crowds, the stadium’s aging sound system struggled to keep pace. Michigan’s freezing winter climate was particularly harsh on electronics and the placement of critical components within the scoreboard exacerbated the problem.
The first step in AJP’s design was to protect the system from the elements. “Michigan State had to move all the electronics into a heated and air-conditioned room within the stadium, below the scoreboard,” AJP’s Jack Covert explained. “From there, we cabled up to the speakers. That single change drastically improved longevity and serviceability.”
AJP then turned its focus to the heart of the challenge–delivering clear, intelligible sound across the entire bowl of one of the Big Ten’s largest venues. The new system design features a point-source loudspeaker array mounted in the scoreboard, supported by delay-fill loudspeakers for even coverage across the upper and lower seating areas.
At the center of the system is Powersoft’s Unica platform, a next-generation amplifier line that combines premium amplification with advanced DSP control. The massive install took advantage of Unica’s signal-to-noise ratio, ultra-efficient power management and reduced heat generation, which are key advantages in a stadium setting where reliability is paramount.
