PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT WINTER 2013/14
NORTH AMERICA SUPPLEMENT
and widespread use of Lake Processing across the industry. Double the power and twice the channel count could make us one quarter of the cost of existing systems. However, this cost is typically returned on the initial investment via the monthly electricity bill over a ten year period of time. Or, in other words, half the life time of the amplifi er. Also customised controls are available to tie existing systems such as BSS London, Peavey MediaMatrix, Symetrix Jupiter and QSC’s Q-Sys. This allows a venue to upgrade their existing system and still have the same or similar control GUI, eliminating the need to retrain vital system operators. It really is the easiest and most effective solution on the market.”
The backbone at Barclays
With Barclays Center being such a fl agship venue, not just for the Brooklyn Nets or co-owner Jay Z, but also the people of New York and the hundreds of visiting acts who play there every year, it was important to have nothing but the best solutions in place across the board, including the in-house audio system.
At Barclays, a centralised amplifi er room with 60 PLM 10000Q amplifi ers brings together multiple platforms such as Q-Sys from QSC (control) and Greybox settings from EAW (loudspeakers). An equivalent, non PLM Series, system
42 SHOWCASE sound systems
would require double the amount of rack space used, as well as a dedicated equipment rack to handle the EAW Greybox presets. The network is fully redundant, which eliminates failure at any single point, and provides a safety feature that is extremely pertinent to a sports and entertainment arena such as Barclays Center.
“The approach at Barclays uses AES with an analogue backup, third party control via Q-Sys and Greybox settings from EAW, all in one amplifi er,” explains Evans. “When doing redundant systems we also have to consider equal level and time alignment between multiple sources. For example AES has a higher quality, but if a clock error occurs the system will automatically change undetected to the analogue back up. To do this, the gain structure of the AES will need to match the same as the analogue signal. The amplifi er will handle all of that, with no break in sound for end-user or the crowd.”
Another important factor on the PLM Series is the fact that technical staff can remotely monitor the performance of the system via mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet, crucial for a venue the size and scope of Barclays, as Evans testifi es:
“Remote monitoring is also crucial given the amount of usage we are seeing from these systems. It is now common
to see 200+ events in a calendar year at one venue. Being able to verify the entire system in a single day has a huge advantage. For example, if equipment is damaged by a particular customer an invoice can be issued to cover the repair. Also, a larger system can be managed by fewer people as monitoring becomes mobile, and easier too as we can include trouble-shooting tools like impedance sweeps for loudspeakers, pilot tone detection for life safety or temperature warning in devices.
“Imagine a world where a service error is emailed to a technician before arriving at work. This is the level of service our customers now rely on.”
With Barclays Center part of an ever- growing list of venues that are enjoying the benefi ts of PLM Series – including the likes of BC Place in Vancouver, Canada; Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire, England; Vicarage Road, Watford, England; and many more world-wide – it looks like installers and integrators have found their perfect tool for stadium and arena audio. For the multitude of features that have been described above, it seems like PLM Series really does make ‘sound’ business sense for large scale audio applications such as these.
For more information on PLM Series, visit
lab.gruppen.com
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