ORLANDO, FL (CelebrityAccess) — Orlando City Stadium, the newly-constructed home of the Orlando City Soccer Club, the city’s major league soccer team, included a host of new technology making it one of the most cutting-edge soccer fields in the country.
Designed for -degree seating, the stadium accommodates capacity crowds of nearly 30,000 people with low-slung roofs to shield fans from the Florida sun and not infrequent rain. As well, the roof is designed to amplify crowd noises in order to “energize the game da experience.”
Clair Solutions, an audio and video tech consultancy, worked closely with all the firms involved in the design and construction of the stadium in the development and deployment of its audio system.
The audio system includes:
Dante digital audio and BSS HiQnet Audio Architect control are distributed from the mix booth to six separate amp rack locations over single-mode fiber optics using Cisco SG500 switches.
Harman BluLink distributes digital audio within each amp rack location, where Crown amplifiers power the JBL loudspeakers distributed throughout the bowl, concourses, and restrooms.
A Soundcraft Expression 2 console located in the announcer’s booth serves as the main interface for the system, and a Soundcraft Si Expression 1 provides mixing capabilities in the video production booth.
Major components in Orland Stadium’s in-house video replay system include a Ross Video Carbonite 2ME switcher, Ross SDI-based NK-Series video and analog audio routers, a Ross video Blackstorm Video Server and a Ross MIRA Slo-Mo / Replay system. An AJA FS-2 handles video signal conversion when necessary, and IHSE KVM matrix switches transmit video signals.
Several Ikegami HC-HD300 Cameras with Fujifilm lenses cover both the stadium and the stands. Bittree B96H Series Video Patchbays provide robust connection points and Forecast Consoles and Middle Atlantic Products provide custom furniture and racks.
The stadium also features an open-architecture video replay system.
“We had to build a system that subcontractor A could use one way, subcontractor B could use a different way, and subcontractor C could use in a still different way,” explained Seth Morth, engineering manager with Clair Solutions. “It’s a real sandbox – users can configure it any which way, but the trade-off for all that power is the risk of making it too difficult to use. We fell back on industry best practices, including predictable signal flows and abundant, consistent documentation. Every source, destination, and connection always get exactly the same label in all the documentation.”
