In 2011, the University of Oregon built the Matthew Knight Arena, a basketball and special event facility they planned to be one of the finest in the nation. Delta AV was subcontracted to design and install innovative AV technology for the 13,000-seat arena—technology that would honor the significance of the university’s investment.
The main scoreboard speaker system included eight speaker arrays, consisting of three mid/high boxes and two dual 18” subwoofer boxes. Delta AV also installed 24 catwalk delay speakers, eight down fill speakers, and 50 under deck fill speakers. All cable exiting or entering the building was spliced to transition from plenum in the building to direct burial (wet) cable outside of the building. The speakers required 600 amps of power. Digital control equipment was installed in the AV control room, along with signal routers to and from the truck dock racks. Fiber optic cabling was installed in the control room to support broadcast equipment to four remote locations.
Complexity Begets Innovation
An ambient noise sensing system was implemented as part of the digital audio processor. This was installed in the Champion’s Club area to automatically compensate for background noise levels within the club.
Interview rooms, locker rooms, performer areas, and restrooms each have audio systems with selection of building-wide sources, arena PA, radio play-by-play, and TV network broadcast. JBL equipment was installed for the eight main line arrays around the scoreboard, 24 catwalk speakers, and the 70V distributed system. The 14 BSS Blue DSPs are all connected via cobra net and contain analog backup.
The Central Nervous System
The entire audio system is powered with 59 Crown Lite Series amplifiers. The main mixing console is a Yamaha M7CL-32. The broadcast system consists of numerous HD camera and audio tie lines connecting the entire facility to the main broadcast truck dock locations for TV broadcast. Several miles of fiber, coax, and audio cable all converge at the truck dock location, where four large racks provide connections to camera, video, and audio locations for the entire facility.
“We appreciate the quality of work Delta AV performed and their general dedication to making sure that everything was done right and performs at a level equal to what Matthew Knight Arena represents as an iconic facility,” noted the client. “We thank them for that effort and our on-going relationship and recommend them as an excellent provider of audio system integration for any type of athletic venue.”
Everything was done right and performs at a level equal to what Matthew Knight Arena represents as an iconic facility.