Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Electro-Voice deploys EVH loudspeakers in Dunkin’ Donuts Center

The Dunkin' Donuts Center wasn't happy with its previous sound reinforcement system despite its installation in as recent times as 2008. The new Electro-Voice solution ticked all the boxes and is equipped with the company's OMNEO networking functionality.

The Dunkin’ Donuts Center, which is Home of the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins and Providence College Men’s Basketball, has upgraded its sound reinforcement system with Electro-Voice EVH loudspeakers and TG series amps equipped with RCM-28 modules for the latest OMNEO networking functionality.

As a major US sports and entertainment venue located in the Rhode Island metro area, the facility seats approximately 13,000 and hosts not only games, including NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball, but also corporate events, trade shows, commencements and concerts. Despite remodelling works as recent as 2008, which offered solid acoustic design and good interior treatment, the sound system still lacked coverage and intelligibility.

Warwick, Rhode Island-based Ambient Sound handled installation and co-designed the system with Electro-Voice’s Technical Services department, whose efforts were led by Robert Deyarmond. A directive late in the design phase stated that no cabinet could hang lower than “low steel,” which is the bottom of the ceiling’s lowest horizontal member. “Permanently-hung cabinets below low steel might have interfered with the availability of rigging points for the concert systems that come in with touring shows,” commented Barrett. “And that might have made it difficult for them to avoid interfering with sight lines.”

By limiting the vertical space available for arrays, the low-steel limitation made the size-to-power ratio of the boxes critical, and also placed a premium on loudspeakers that can achieve full performance even in arrays of very few boxes. Based on these requirements the design team selected distributed arrays using Electro-Voice EVH1152 two-way coaxial horn-loaded full-range loudspeakers.

Ambient deployed 36 EVH1152s around the facility, 32 of which are used in vertical arrays of two boxes each. Four of these arrays are hung on each long side at intervals of about 30ft. Another three are flown on each short side. The remaining boxes are used in two horizontal arrays, which cover the two ends of the ice, and in a four-box down-pointing cluster for the center of the ice. The mains are supplemented with 12 EVF-2151D subwoofers flown in six clusters above the arena’s central scoreboard and video screen.

The system is driven by Electro-Voice Tour Grade power amplifiers: 18 TG5s and three TG7s. Audio is routed to the amps digitally via a set of two NetMax N8000 digital matrix system controllers. Each amp is equipped with an RCM-28 – the latest generation remote-control DSP module from EV. RCM-28 is a two-channel digital controller module for TG series amps that enables system control, monitoring and DSP, including sound-optimizing FIR filters. RCM-28 is the first EV product to support the new OMNEO media networking architecture (co-developed by EV/Bosch), which combines Dante audio networking with the OCA control networking platform. Amplifiers with RCM-28 modules installed can be integrated into OMNEO networks that operate over standard Ethernet and can interoperate with Dante- and OCA-enabled products from any manufacturer. With an RCM-28 module installed, network, audio and system parameters can be completely supervised and controlled remotely through IRIS-Net software.

www.ambientsound.com
www.electrovoice.com