Over 85,000 people erupt in celebration as a running back lunges for the goal line, a booming voice cuts through the cheers, “Touchdown Oklahoma!” Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and the mass of fans within it brings a unique set of challenges for an audio system. In order to provide the ultimate game-day experience with their recent stadium renovations, it was essential the system be fail-safe and versatile. It must provide clear, even and intelligible audio coverage to a massive area with precision.
The new sound system starts with adding a DANTE digital audio card to the facility’s mixing console to allow digital audio distribution over the network. Fiber optic cable was used between the control booth and amplifier room to ensure the fastest digital audio system, allowing up to 512 channels to be added or removed from the network. This provides digital audio clarity and speed using conventional network devices over thousands of feet.
Two main speaker clusters were added in the south end zone, flanking both sides of the video board. Each cluster is approximately two stories tall and weighs nearly two tons. To maintain even sound distribution, the stadium seating was divided into zones, requiring extremely narrow coverage patterns. This was accomplished by using three long-throw parabolic dishes, designed to aim and control the sound waves to only five degrees wide and tall. This allows the intense sound to be contained within the stadium, avoiding sound overflow to the surrounding campus and neighborhoods of Norman, OK.
Precision speaker coverage and digital audio combine to create a world-class experience for those in attendance.