Home of the Canadian football BC Lions and site of several events in the upcoming 2010 Winter Games, BC Place is the dominant sports and entertainment complex in Vancouver.
The owners, BC Pavilion Corporation, recently contracted Western Pacific Enterprises GP, one of the largest installers in the region, for a complete upgrade of the luxury suites that ring the stadium.
As described by Jan Petersen, Data Division Manager for Western Pacific, the comprehensive project involved “55 suites with 118 loudspeakers, two each and sometimes four in the larger VIP suites.
“They had gutted the area to completely redo the suites in terms of their design, looks and size,” Petersen explains. “The original suites were done in 1983 when the stadium was built. The project started last March and was just completed in mid-August. Western Pacific was responsible for electrical, voice data upgrades, lighting and audio.”
Based on a recommendation by the consultant, Ian Wolfe of Acoustical Design Group of Mission Kansas, Martin Audio CT8.1 loudspeakers were chosen for the upgrade along with a Netstreams IP-based audio solution.
“We had developed a solid relationship with Martin Audio based on their former national sales manager Irv Weisman,” states Wolfe. “We thought the Ceiling Series speaker was the best for this application because the electronics driving it had no provisions for equalization. We needed a speaker that was smooth and natural sounding on its own without EQ.”
Petersen adds that the installation was “very straightforward and easy because everything we needed was in the box. The consultant tried to ‘rattle’ the speaker, really push the highs and lows, and they all passed the test easily. It’s really good for music with a full sound, clear highs and exceptional bass sound.
“The customers for the suites were happy with the system,” Jan reports, as was the client, PAVCO. Everyone thought the sound system was a major improvement. In fact, we installed Martin Audio speakers in the Western Pacific conference room and it sounds great.”
