According to Garth Hemphill, sales engineer for LD Systems' Houston office, Nelson Wilcox served as the project manager with project engineering handled by Tom Smith and Whit Whitworth. Following a careful evaluation of the 11,700-capacity arena's needs, the LD Systems team worked closely with Andrew Nagel, L-Acoustics' head of application, install, to ultimately specify a system comprised of 40 ARCS Focus enclosures paired with 16 SB18i subs.
Installed and commissioned by mid-May, just prior to a string of nearly 20 high school and collegiate graduation services that the arena hosts each year, the new system is comprised of eight arrays each featuring five ARCS Focus enclosures flown beneath two SB18i subs. Powered and processed by a combined total of eight amplified controllers, two LA4 drive the bottom ARCS Focus enclosures on each array--used as down-fills to address the floor area when necessary--while six LA8 power both the subs and upper four ARCS Focus cabinets grouped in pairs to cover the main seating.
"We initially put together three potential system packages for the venue: one built on the Kara system, a second system from a competitive manufacturer, and a third comprised of the new ARCS Focus arrays," says Hemphill. "Kara was really more than they needed, so it was eliminated. The second system actually provided a similar performance spec to the ARCS Focus but was considerably more expensive and required 64 rack spaces for amps, as opposed to only 16. Plus, the L-Acoustics product simply sounded better, so it was a much better choice."
Following the system's installation, Hemphill admitted that even he was overwhelmingly impressed with the new ARCS Focus arrays. "This system is amazing," he enthuses. "I've been designing and installing systems for 30 years and have never had a system straight out of the box sound this good in any room, let alone a big echoic arena! We walked the entire venue and measured an incredibly consistent 108dB of coverage throughout the seating with almost no fluctuation. And the sound is so naturally clean and present. It reminded me of the sound that our K1 system delivered at RodeoHouston earlier this year, but on a smaller scale."
(Jim Evans)
