Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ, the 25,000-seat home to the Major League Soccer (MLS) New York Red Bulls and the NJ/NY Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League, has a new venue-wide sound reinforcement system incorporating L-Acoustics A Series loudspeakers paired with SB18 IIi subwoofers.
The system, installed just ahead of the 2022 MLS season kick-off in late February, was designed and installed by AV integration firm Diversified. The A Series loudspeakers replace the distributed sound system installed around the venue’s catwalks when it first opened.
“At the time, when soccer was really establishing itself in the US as a professional-league sport, the sound systems tended to be designed with value in mind,” explains Justo Gutierrez, Diversified director of AV & Sound, Sports and Live Events. “And typically, you didn’t need much for a PA system for a soccer pitch; the game is continuous, and the PA was used mainly for pre-and post-game and halftime announcements. But the sport has progressed and now requires sound that can support a lot more, including music.”
Gutierrez adds the Red Bulls sought a system providing much higher output than its predecessor, along with full coverage of seating areas. These goals were achieved with a design that called for symmetrical arrays of A Series enclosures, each backed by SB18 IIi subwoofers, as well as two corner-fill arrays using A15i Focus. The design creates seamless sonic overlaps between seating sections and covers them more consistently and smoothly than the previous distributed loudspeakers.
The arena’s roof—the largest canopy of all MLS stadiums at 322,276 square feet—extends 120 feet from the last row of seats to just past the field’s touchlines, with 60 feet of the roof being translucent to allow for natural light to cover all the seats. However, due to the A Series’ focused dispersion, the low roof design, known for providing superior acoustics by amplifying and reflecting crowd noise back onto the field, doesn’t interact at all with the new system.
“The new speakers are positioned equidistant between the upper and lower seating tiers and are firing at the best angle and away from the roof, minimizing any reflections,” says Gutierrez, who worked closely with Red Bull Arena director of construction John Amorosa at the time the system was installed. The new system—which incidentally utilizes the previous system’s cabling infrastructure, saving considerable costs on installation—is designed specifically for enhanced speech intelligibility and music impact. It not only considerably improves the stadium’s sound but also helps make it more attractive to touring shows, which can connect to the new loudspeakers and use them as supplemental delays for music performances.“
L-Acoustics provided dedicated support to Diversified and the Red Bull Arena project team, spearheaded by Amorosa and AV Engineer John Nicklas, on the system design, which began in 2018. They stayed in touch as the pandemic shuttered all sports activity for much of 2020, continuing to refine the design. “The Covid lockdown delayed the project significantly, but the Red Bulls team was fully committed to keeping the project on track and on budget, despite a huge financial deficit incurred by MLS during the pandemic,” says Dan Palmer, L-Acoustics business development manager, Sports Facilities – USA and Canada.
The system is primarily configured with 96 A15i Focus and one dozen A15i Wide enclosures for additional vertical coverage where needed. The design called for four arrays of seven A15i for the North, South, and East zones and four arrays of six A15i for the West zone, each paired with an array of three SB18 IIi for additional LF impact. Two small corner-fill arrays of two A15i Focus each are used in the NW and SW corners to complete the full coverage and even SPL distribution over the audience listening areas.
The system is controlled and powered by 15 amplified controllers—14 LA12X and one LA4X—and is flown from the venue’s steel canopy structures and rigged under a tension-fabric curved exterior shell of PTFE fiberglass wraps, utilizing custom rigging created by the Diversified team. The pairing of A15i and SB18 IIi provides a balance of full-range, high-impact performance. A15i extends down to 41 Hz and is aligned with SB18 IIi, extending the LF response to 32 Hz. Gino Pellicano of L-Acoustics calibrated the system in coordination with Diversified and Red Bull Arena management.
The system is also weatherized to IP standards—specifically, IEC 60 529 – IP55 rated and MIL-STD-810G rated, as well as ISO 105-B01 – UV protection—all of which are critical for an outdoor venue in the Northeast. That protection extends down to the fit and finish of the system, with sealed connector plates, gland nuts, and highly durable hardware to meet the rigorous demands of professional and collegiate outdoor stadium installations.
The sound upgrade also includes the installation of a DiGiCo Quantum225 mixing console and new Dante-native DQ-Rack for front of house. “Between how even the coverage is and how musical and impactful the rig sounds, we couldn’t be happier,” says Red Bull Arena AV engineer John Nicklas. “The Soundvision models were impressive and accurate, and L-Acoustics went above and beyond to make their delivery on time, despite the logistical challenges. Both L-Acoustics and Diversified provided exceptional service and attention to detail. The PA they’ve installed is a total game-changer for us and we’re looking forward to bringing our sports fans a new sonic experience here at Red Bull Arena.”
