Bright package flies over the ice in Luleå

Sweden - The country’s most northerly professional ice hockey team, Luleå HF, is enjoying new excitement at its home games, following the implementation of an impressive €4m audio-visual experience at the Coop Norrbotten Arena. A key part of this state-of-the-art package, installed by the Bright Group Sweden AB, is a high SPL Nexo Geo line array system.
The 6,300-capacity sports and event arena is home to the Luleå Hockey Association, which was keen to improve the live experience for its supporters and visitors, especially in the light of a new TV deal to broadcast all the games in Sweden’s premier ice hockey league.
Following its recent success at the Hartwall Arena in Finland, the Bright Group was ideally placed to design a dramatic new AV installation, including a powerful Nexo line array sound system, new arena lighting, projectors for ice projection, BlackTrax for position projection, LED-screens around the stand and a new LED-oval high above the ice. The high-end systems deliver a dazzling pre-show multimedia performance before every game in the arena. The show is constantly updated with new content, created by Bright Finland, putting the technology at the heart of the sporting entertainment.
“It has been a huge success,” says Bright Group Sweden’s director of installation John Wettersten. “The sound was one of the most appreciated parts of the project.
“When specifying our design, we had to consider the line of sight from the upper seats, as well as the weight of the loudspeaker cabinets necessary for the task, and, needless to say, the budget. We needed a system with a lot of punch, which led us to the Geo S12 model, and, because the opening show uses a lot of low end, to add Nexo RS18 subs.”
Over a five-month period, Bright’s audio installation specialist Drew Black worked closely with Nexo’s Carole Marsaud to perfect the system design, from initial modelling on Nexo’s proprietary NS-1 software suite, to final installation.
“The main system uses 12 hangs, each with four Geo S12 cabinets,” says Black. “These have been placed in the roof at varying heights around the rink, so we didn’t compromise sight lines, and throw to about 22m at the furthest point. Also in the loop are four clusters of four RS18 18” subwoofers, which run in cardioid mode. These are hung in the centre to achieve the most even coverage.”
(Jim Evans)

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