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TORONTO'S AIR CANADA CENTRE GOES DIGITAL
Focused Audio for Megascale Video Signage


'If you want to hit people right in front of the building, you can, and if you want to aim one 200 feet down the street, you can do that too. They're really that directional. It's unbelievable' – Courtney Ross, Air Canada Centre

There are several things that one thinks of when the country Canada is mentioned, and shortly after, a mention of hockey is soon to follow. Situated in Canada's largest city, Toronto, Ontario, is the Air Canada Centre – home to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team whose die-hard fans are renowned in the NHL for their devotion to their team.

Air Canada Centre also houses the Toronto Raptors NBA basketball team, and the Toronto Rock lacrosse team. Located close to the waterfront of Lake Ontario, the building was first constructed in 1999, originally replacing the historical Maple Leaf Gardens, and features a seating capacity of just under 20,000 for concert events, of which many take place each year as major touring artists frequently make Toronto a stop on their tour.

Seeing how most hockey games are sellouts, the venue created an outdoor tailgate area for fans to watch the action going on inside the venue without purchasing a ticket.

The newly built Maple Leaf Square features a west-ward extension of the building, and the construction of two condominium towers, office space, retail outlets and a large, three-storey sports bar, all attached to the main structure via a sky bridge.

Keeping up with the action The tail-gate area has a large, threestorey LED screen that keeps fans apprised of what's going on before, during and after games.

Audio coverage for the square is handled by four Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC Live loudspeakers, which were incorporated into the frame of the LED screen, to preserve the building's exterior aesthetic according to architects' wishes.

The IC Live system included two stacked loudspeakers per side, placed behind metal grating, which were mounted on custom bracket hardware, which was built by Westbury National Show Systems (WNSS), the audio contractor for the project. Located in Toronto, WNSS (www.westbury. com) is a full service company, providing production, design and installation services.

The team included John Coniglio, Senior Project Sales; Guy Wallace, Lead Designer; Andy Foord, Technical Support/System Designer; and David Van Veldhuisen, Project Manager.

On-site audio personnel includes Dwayne Brown, Manager Venue Services; and Courtney Ross, Lead Audio Engineer for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.

Renkus-Heinz IC Live technology uses digital beam steering, allowing users to easily aim where loudspeaker output is placed, most importantly, on the audience.

   The company's computer software lets users define the opening angles for as many as four sonic beams from each IC Live array module (up to eight beams when stacked).

Multi-channel Class D amplification is used to control every single array element. Manufacturer documentation lists the output at 105 dB SPL (108 dB SPL when stacked) at 100 feet, and 80 Hz to 20 kHz. Its low-frequency energy can be extended to 40 Hz or below with matching subwoofers (which were not used at Air Canada Centre).

"We were looking to get some more punch outside," explains Courtney Ross, who has worked at the venue since its opening. Each side has two stacked boxes, which fill about half the height of the screen."




GOING LIVE WITH IC LIVE

The digitally-steerable IC Live loudspeakers were a necessity for two reasons: the fact that they fit in the 10-inch space allotted, and their ability to be focused where designers needed the audio.




"With the building designers wanting the loudspeakers to be integrated into the building for aesthetic reasons, we were very limited by what we could choose. The Renkus-Heinz system lets us actually steer where we want the sound to go. If you want to hit people right in front of the building, you can, and if you want to aim one 200 feet down the street, you can do that too. They're really that directional. It's unbelievable. You don't even hear pockets of audio, it's totally seamless."

The exterior system is connected to the building's main control room via BSS Cobranet and Renkus-Heinz RHAON control software.

"We're all about networking with our new system, so it was natural that we wanted to be able to connect the tailgate system to the control room," continues Ross. "I can always keep an eye on it to see what it's doing."

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