Audio quality has become a key element of the fan experience
Sports teams and leagues are increasingly focusing on the acoustic quality of their stadiums and arenas. Everyone else is like that, so they should too. Consumer complaints about sound quality and volume have moved to the forefront of conversations about the overall venue experience. Around the world, acoustic concerns are raising concerns about the “emotional connection” audiences can have with what happens on the field or stage, and stadiums and arenas that showcase both sports and music The need is growing.
The market for live sound in sports venues is much the same as the market for concert sound was about 20 years ago. This group of ticket buyers have fairly high expectations for the experience they are paying for. It's no longer just a game. It's an afternoon and evening at a venue that is likely to offer music, food, betting, and other entertainment elements and often costs hundreds of dollars. The sound must match the price and expectations. This has caught the attention of sound system vendors, giving venue operators more options.
Ralph Mastrangelo, PK Sound: “Sports venues need to accommodate entertainment, both as individual events and as a combined event.”
“Sports is an exciting market to be a part of, which is why I’m so focused on it,” he says. Ralph Mastrangelo, Director of North American Sales, PK Soundhas had success in the music and other touring markets, and is starting to target the sports venue sector as well. “Sports venues need to accommodate entertainment, both as individual events and as combined events.”
One area his company is looking to capitalize on is the increased demand for high-impact music systems that can cover the field for warm-ups and practices. Some venues use sound systems installed for that purpose, but that can be overkill and pump loud music throughout an almost empty venue. In some cases, teams may install a small PA dedicated to that specific task or deploy a portable PA system. Mastrangelo said PK Sound's robotic line array technology can move coverage areas by robotically moving line array components to change coverage patterns. ”
Baseball that embraces baseball
The NBA and NFL are known for their bass-heavy modern music, but the last five Super Bowl halftime shows have been almost entirely hip-hop, from 2020's Bad Bunny to this year's Usher. and R&B artists are the anchors, but baseball is still the only one. Dip your toes into the deep bottom of the pool. Four years ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers installed 21 of his L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers to update the right field tower of his sound system, and he installed three more on the left field side. This is a significant amount of low frequency energy (LFE) for a typical MLB. baseball Ground.
The main consideration was to keep that LFE within the park to prevent noise complaints. This concern was further heightened by the stadium's point source system design. This system design, commonly found in college football stadiums, is intended to broadcast sound over very long distances. Noise can be a bigger problem at a ballpark, where half of a team's 162 games are played each year, than at an NFL stadium, which is used more than a dozen times a year.
“The subwoofer is arranged in an end-fire configuration,” he explains. Derek O'Hara, Director of Planning and Development, Los Angeles Dodgers. “This gives important directionality to the low end and prevents it from leaking through the stadium walls, reducing impact on the seats.”
Mike Hedden of Dunley Sound: “Sports is entertainment, and it's more important now than ever.”
Mike Hedden, President and CEO, Danley SoundThe company, a prominent name in the college football and stadium sound system market, has been an advocate of bringing bass to baseball. He points to a system Danley installed last year at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, Ga., which includes the company's extensive THMINI15 subwoofer. They have changed the entertainment value of the ballpark, he noted, adding that is especially important because the ballpark's home team, the Savannah Bananas, is baseball's equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Importantly, Hedden added, as part of the Atlanta Braves' development system, the bass-enhanced ballpark provides such a musical environment for the players. “[Major League Baseball] “There's still a built-in bias against the low end,” he said, acknowledging that the statement was subjective. “Baseball stadiums typically use distributed sound systems, which is fine, but they tend to lose gas below 100 Hz. That's the technical side. There's also the sense that it's not baseball. I think there is. But sports is entertainment, and it's more important now than ever.”
Mark Graham, WJHW: “Bass is a driving force in system design these days, and so is speech intelligibility. Our job is to make everything sound good.”
WJHW Principal Mark Graham The consulting firm agrees and points out that the Detroit Tigers have increased the number of submarines in ballparks in recent years, including this season's Comercia Park. Baseball's seeming reluctance to fully embrace bass is due to a sense of its historical heritage as “America's pastime,” as well as an emphasis on the clarity of announcers' speech, and a desire for music at games. This has to do with the fact that it tends to be an auxiliary sound rather than a focal point.
On the other hand, he points out that arenas have been using line array systems since music tours made them popular in the 1990s. Additionally, as more concerts are performed in stadiums, touring shows give venue managers and team owners exposure to live sound technology trends.
“Bass is a driving force in system design these days, and so is speech intelligibility,” says Graham. “Our job is to make everything sound good.”
Justo Gutierrez of Diversified: “The team wants the same sound you hear in the venues where music tours take place.”
It has been suggested that there is some mutual influence between sports regarding LFE. Justo Gutierrez director, engineering, sports, multifaceted. Fans accustomed to big bass in NBA arenas and his NFL stadiums are also one of the factors pushing MLB toward a meeting with the lower end.
“It's really a customer demand,” he said of integrator Diversified's recent addition of subwoofers to the PA systems at the Philadelphia Phillies' Citizens Bank Park and the San Francisco Giants' Oracle Park. say while referring to it. “Adjacent sports can impact how each sport is presented to fans.”
This also applies to concerts and other entertainment productions. Spectators at concerts, especially those held at sports venues, experience the venue as an entertainment space, he added.
“That's part of what has driven so-called rider-enabled sound system brands in the sports space,” Gutierrez points out. “The team wants the same sound you hear at the venue when a music tour takes place.”
Stephen Seable, d&b audiotechnik: “Keeping sound above the seat and away from nearby areas has become more important these days.”
Some sound system brands say they may benefit from rider-ready dynamics Stephen Seable, Installation Business Development Manager, d&b audiotechniksystems are located at the MLB Angels' Angel Stadium, the NHL Predators' Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and the Edmonton Oilers' Rogers Place Arena. But he believes the brand's ability to control coverage patterns is becoming important for sports venue designers looking to reduce noise levels outside the venue.
“In recent years, it has become more important to keep seat noise away from nearby residential areas,” he says. At last month's Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade event in Barcelona, d&b and two other manufacturers showed off new cardioid loudspeaker designs that produce tighter coverage patterns, he added.
louder sound and video
As the former gets louder and the latter larger, audio is likely to increasingly compete with video for media space in sports venues. Among the potential interactions, large scoreboards can create huge reflective surfaces and crowd the placement of PA components.
Daktronics is primarily focused on developing large video boards for sports venues, and has been integrating sound systems into some of its largest models for 20 years.
John Olsen, Daktronics: “Because we tend to turn our heads in the direction of the sound.” Adding audio to the video board draws the fan's attention to the display.
He said this format is particularly well-suited for large college football stadiums, for both ergonomics and cost reasons. john olsen National audio sales, daktronics. “Because we tend to turn our heads in the direction of the sound,” he points out, this format can keep our eyes glued to video displays that combine gaming information with advertising. One example is the audio/video complex system installed at Riddle Pace's baseball field at Troy (Alabama) University. A 21-foot-tall, 71-foot-wide LED video display in center field features a Sportsound 1500HD audio system, as well as a time clock, pitch clock, and pitch speed display.
Immersive questions
Will the future of sports venues include immersive sound? While outdoor stadiums are generally not suitable for that type of system, they are part of a wide range of options available to sports venues to support entertainment applications. is. “That might be the next mountain to climb, at least when it comes to arenas,” says Gutierrez of Diversified, adding that some systems can support immersive operations with the addition of appropriate processing. I'm pointing it out.
At the NFL's Seattle Seahawks' Lumen Field, a d&b audiotechnik system installed as the venue's delay system is now leveraging the company's soundscape immersive capabilities. (The stadium will be ready with a full d&b PA system for his 2024 NFL season.)
d&b's Schieble says a growing number of sports venues are exploring new ways to engage with fans, with an increasing focus on immersion. However, he points out that there is still a lack of immersive content for such systems.
Moreover, giving every seat in a stadium or arena the same maximum effect is not a simple problem. More speakers are needed to increase the granularity of the immersive effect. Rule of thumb: To achieve localization of acoustic objects, each seat must be within range of her three speakers. Also, for large venues, costs can exceed the return on investment.
Meanwhile, Schieble said immersive processors can help create an improved acoustic experience by adding clarity and clarity to the sound, reducing listener fatigue that plagues patrons of very loud events. states that it can be done.
Sports venues don't just have to host games and competitions, they also have to deal with increasing regulations and limits on how much noise they can make. But the value of combining sports and entertainment, and the solutions that address the challenges, make the effort worthwhile.
