RBC Center Gets New Audio Life

December 2, 2008 Lititz, PA – Clair Brothers revamps audio system at the RBC Center in Raleigh NC. The RBC Center is home to the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League and the North Carolina State University men’s basketball team. The arena seats 19,722 for basketball and 18,680 for hockey, including 75 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats. The arena also hosts numerous other events, ranging from WWE contests to rock concerts.

According to Jim Devenney, Senior Audio Designer, for Clair Brothers, the audio system at the RBC Center was due for an overhaul. “The system originally installed in the building had lots of clusters and lots of overlap that degraded the system’s intelligibility,” he said. “The system was also underpowered for the events the arena was used for, particularly the Hurricanes and NC State basketball. The goals of the new system were to alleviate those problems and to give the customer the ability to zone the system for different event seating situations.”

For this combination of power and flexibility, Clair Brothers installed a system that consisted of eight JBL arrays each containing 10 VLA901 loudspeakers hanging from the center of the roof, along with two arrays each containing four VLA601 loudspeakers for basketball floor fills. Additionally, four arrays each containing six VT4880A arrayable subwoofers provide additional low-frequency support. Five AM6212 loudspeakers were installed in the scoreboard for center floor/ice fill, while 24 AM4212 loudspeakers were installed for very upper seat delay fill.

 “The coverage of the arena with the eight VLA arrays is excellent and the VT4880A subwoofers give the system an extra dynamic and fullness quality,” Devenney said. “The two VLA601 clusters do an excellent job of filling in the floor from the basketball court to the hockey dashers at the ends of the arena.”

Main PA includes; 9 x Dolby processors, 147 x QSC PL3 series amplifiers with 16 x CM16a controllers, 4 x Oxmoor audio DA’s, 2 x ATI DDA212 AED DA’s and 4 x Powerware 9125 UPS units to go along with the JBL loudspeakers.

Devenney added that the installation provided very few issues or challenges—a rarity for projects of this scale. “The project was done on schedule and within budget,” Devenney said. “Actually, through the value engineering process and with the help of JBL’s Brad Ricks, we had some considerable savings for the customer. All the building people, especially Barry Steiman’s production staff, were very supportive of the project and very helpful during the install.”
FOH includes; 1 x Yamaha PM5D, 1 x Telex BTR-800 wireless intercom system, 6 x Audio Accessories WEP-962-SH patchbays, 1 x Crown, and a 311A announcer’s headset microphone.

Paging System includes; 14 x QSC CX204v amplifiers, 2 x BSS London BLU-80’s and 2 x BSS London BLU-160 units.
Meeting Rooms such as the Arena Club include; 147 x JBL 26CT ceiling speakers, 30 x JBL 19CT ceiling subs, 1 x BSS London BLU-16, 3 x BSS London BLU-8 controllers, 2 x QSC CX204v amplifiers, 1 x QSC CX602vv amplifier, 2 x Tascam CD & DVD players, 3 x Sanyo PLC-XT25 projectors and  3 x Da-Lite Electric Drop Down Flush Mount Screen.
Interview Room includes; 12 x JBL 26CT ceiling speakers and 2 x JBL 19CT ceiling subs

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