A recent full audio overhaul at 44,500-capacity Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, MA, home to the Boston College Eagles NCAA football team, incorporates almost 100 Powersoft Quattrocanali power amplifiers in a design by Dallas-based Idibri, a Salas O’Brien Company, encompassing the stadium bowl, concourses, suites, broadcast booths and press rooms.
“We were tasked with upgrading several generations of technology all at once,” explains Ben Boeshans, senior consultant for Idibri. “We started designing the project in the first months of the Covid-19 lockdown, meeting regularly with Boston College representatives online and dealing with all of the supply chain issues as the project progressed.”
Boston College tasked Idibri with delivering a system that could provide intelligible audio throughout the venue while limiting the amount of residual sound that would spill outside of it. Ryan Knox, associate vice president of Idibri, notes: “We needed 98 Quattrocanali in total, which were installed in seven locations around the facility. The primary signal is via Dante from Q-SYS with an analog backup, while all of the control is taken care of by a number of DiGiCo consoles.”
The amplifiers drive weatherised Fulcrum Acoustic FL283, FH15 series, CCX series and RX series loudspeakers serving the bowl while the field system utilizes L-Acoustics Syva loudspeaker with KS21 subwoofers. The suites, press rooms, broadcast areas and concourses are outfitted with a variety of QSC AD series loudspeakers, with six redundant pairs of Q-SYS cores of various sizes for signal processing.
“Given the supply chain challenges the industry is facing right now, we knew that we would encounter some hurdles,” says Boeshans. “We worked closely with Powersoft and the project’s integrator, Diversified, to ensure that the specified products could arrive in time for the project, and we were even able to swap in more Powersoft amps when others couldn’t make the timeline.”
The audio team makes extensive use of the third-party Q-SYS plugin within the Powersoft amplifier platforms, which they employ to control power status, implement backup strategy, and engage in real-time system monitoring alongside Powersoft HealthPlus software.
“Rick Woida from Powersoft provided some really useful guidance for us on programming the A+ file, as well as hanging out on site with us during commissioning and the first game,” adds Knox. “He also assisted in creating custom speaker presets for speakers that weren’t previously in the library and used A+ [ArmoníaPlus]’s error reporting to help us track down a few wiring issues”
Boston College audio engineer Adam Ferguson concludes: “Overall, we are impressed with the service and products Powersoft were able to provide, particularly when you consider the supply chain issues that they managed to overcome for us. They are a great manufacturing partner for this kind of project.”
