BMO Field
BMO Field plays home to Canada’s national soccer team, the Toronto FC major league soccer club and the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. With the goal of rivaling top European soccer stadiums, a major renovation kicked off in 2014 which added a 9,000-seat upper deck, a continuous concourse level, and a canopy covering three sides of the Field’s stands. Toronto-based integrator Westbury National worked with leading Canadian Pro Audio distributor SFM on a new sound reinforcement system to deliver optimum full-range coverage to every seat of the renovated world-class sports stadium.
Challenges
- As the stadium’s existing point-source sound system was no longer feasible with the new canopy, an entirely new sound reinforcement approach was required
- The entire system needed to be installed in two weeks to allow time for tuning before the Toronto FC’s scheduled season-opener
Solution
Westbury National’s Andrew Foord based his distributed venue-wide loudspeaker approach on Fulcrum’s AH Series compact, two-way, full-range loudspeakers. The system incorporates 18 clusters of AH loudspeakers – six individual hangs of one AH96 covering the south side stands, six hangs of two AH96s covering the west side, and six hangs of one AH96 and two AH65 loudspeakers for the largest seating area on the east side.
“They proved to be a perfect fit,” Foord said. “The boxes have excellent fidelity and offered plenty of design flexibility. The fact that they require less power was a nice bonus and ended up saving our customer unnecessary amplifier expense.”
Fulcrum’s Rich Frembes stepped up to provide support on placement and coverage issues. “We had a very small time window for the actual installation,” Foord added. “Rich was quite helpful in confirming that the system – at least on paper – was going to do what was needed. He also made sure we had all of the boxes on time and ready to go.”
“When we did the client walk-through, it was clearly a success,” Foord concluded. “One of the things the owners noted was the linear coverage throughout the stadium. And to Fulcrum’s credit, it is indeed outstanding. Walking the venue, you literally can’t tell the difference when you pass from the coverage zone of one cluster to another.”
To Fulcrum’s credit, it is indeed outstanding. Walking the venue, you literally can’t tell the difference when you pass from the coverage zone of one cluster to another.
Project Details
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| Market | Sports Stadiums and Arenas |
| Type | 40,000-seat outdoor stadium |
| Fulcrum Products | (32) Legacy AH Series Loudspeakers |
| Supporting Products | Q-SYS Integrated DSP, Control and Amplification Platform |
| QSC Core 1100 System Processor and Control Engine |
