At the beginning of 2009 a new arena opened in the Seattle region; the ShoWare Center.

Located in the suburb of Kent, the ShoWare Center is a multi-purpose venue that plays home to the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.

Milwaukie, Oregon-based Delta AV and Seattle-based Sparling collaborated in the design of a state-of-the-art JBL loudspeaker system for the new arena.

The ShoWare Center has a seating capacity of 6,500, with retractable seating to accommodate other events such as concerts and other sporting events.

With this in mind, the arena needed a PA system as powerful as it was flexible.

Given the arena’s primary purpose as a hockey facility, the venue posed more than its share of acoustical challenges. “Acoustically speaking, hockey venues can be a nightmare because of the large amount of glass and ice in the arena,” said Steve Jellerson, Vice President of Delta AV. “Because of that, the system needed to be highly controllable.”

Delta AV and Sparling developed a main PA system of 12 distributed clusters featuring a range of JBL PD Series loudspeakers. The system features six JBL PD5322/64 loudspeakers, six PD5322/95 loudspeakers, 12 PD5122 loudspeakers, with eight ASB6128 subwoofers.

Additionally, two PD5212/95 and two PD5212/64 loudspeakers serve as ice fills. Eighteen Crown I-Tech amplifiers power the system, which also features networked processing from BSS Audio. Harman’s HiQnet™ System Architect platform is used for amplifier monitoring.

“It was a bonus to be able to add the PD5122 boxes to control the lower midrange pattern, because we wanted to keep as much sound off the side walls and ceilings as possible,” said Richard Erwin, Audiovisual Project Manager for Sparling.

“With the PD5122’s we could deliver a better controlled lower vocal range to the stands. Delta AV did an incredible job with the rigging and we didn’t have to move a single enclosure once the system was set up.”
       
“The system has performed great,” Jellerson said. “It kicks, it’s loud and penetrates in an acoustically hostile environment.”

“The ShoWare Center is a prime example of the controllability and power of JBL’s PD Series loudspeakers, and also a demonstration of Harman’s ability to develop products along the signal chain that are optimized to work together,” said Brad Ricks, Senior Application Engineer, JBL Professional. “The ShoWare Center demonstrates the possibilities when these products are applied by industry-leading firms like Delta AV and Sparling.”

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