NORTHRIDGE, California – Named
for John Mariucci, the “Godfather of Minnesota hockey,” Mariucci Arena is home
to the Golden Gophers, the University of Minnesota’s men’s hockey team. The
10,000-seat facility opened in 1993, and after almost 20 years its audio system
wasn’t sounding so golden anymore. Enter Parsons Electric of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, who along with Richmond, Virginia-based A/V and architectural
services firm Anthony James Partners renovated the sound system with HARMAN’s
JBL PD (Precision Directivity™) Series loudspeakers.
“Mariucci
Arena was a challenging environment because we had a reverberation time of
about eight seconds, and there is nothing in the way of acoustical treatment,”
said Tim Habedank, System Specialist for Parsons Electric. “The rink acts as a
big, perfectly flat reflector so all the sounds the players make on the ice are
bouncing up into all areas of the arena. Combine that with crowd noise during
games, which can reach over 100 dBA, and overcoming the sheer volume of the space
was a challenge.”
Parsons Electric installed
28 PD5322/95 and PD5322/64 loudspeakers in 12 clusters, flown from the ceiling
and aimed throughout the arena. Four corner clusters contain three PD5322/64
loudspeakers each, while the other eight clusters each include one PD5322/64
and one PD5322/95. In addition, four PD5322/95 loudspeakers are used as floor
fill.
“The best thing about
the PD5000 Series loudspeakers is their pattern control and directivity,” Habedank
noted. “A big box is required to achieve this level of control, but the PD
boxes are not too big to the point of being distracting. They give us the
performance we need, they provide high fidelity and high output but most
importantly, the pattern control is terrific.”
Complementing the PD
loudspeakers are 12 JBL ASB6128 subwoofers hung in four arrays of three subs
each, while 14 JBL Control 25 loudspeakers provide under-balcony fill. “It’s a
pretty big arena, but those subs can really shake this place,” Habedank said.
In addition, 13 JBL
CBT70J-1 Constant Beamwidth Technology™ column speakers are used to fill the
press box and upper suite areas. “The CBT’s worked perfectly, enabling us to
achieve tremendous clarity and intelligibility in the upper areas of the arena
by focusing the coverage into the narrow seating area,” Habedank pointed out. “They
also have a pretty wide coverage pattern so we can space them out pretty far
from each other.”
“The system at
Mariucci Arena demonstrates the excellent pattern control of PD Series
loudspeakers and their ability to create relatively small but powerful arrays,”
said Brad Ricks, Senior Application Engineer, JBL Professional, who was
instrumental in the system design.
“The JBL system
rocks,” Habedank concluded. “They get as loud as we need them to be, and we
could even drive them harder if we had to. There are not too many other
loudspeakers we can trust in such a challenging acoustic environment.”
For more information
on Parsons Electric, please visit www.parsonscorp.com
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