Built in 1999, Family Arena in St. Charles, Missouri seats 10,000 spectators and hosts hockey, basketball, soccer, exhibitions, circuses, concerts, and more. The newly formed Missouri Monsters indoor football team will begin playing at Family Arena this year, and the central scoreboard —from which the main components of the sound system hang – is too low for regulation play.
In the process of accommodating the team by removing the scoreboard and hanging the loudspeakers from a higher grid, the arena’s owners recognized the need for bass extension. The existing system only fell to about 200Hz.
Given limited space for installation and a vast area to fill, Chip Self, president of Logic Systems Sound and Lighting, Inc, contacted Danley Sound Labs for a solution. As a result, Family Arena is now home to one of the first Danley BC412 installations in the world. With incredible output, the BC412 is in a class of its own.
“Apart from the general improvement low end would give to all of Family Arena’s events, the football team would be playing a lot of contemporary music that wouldn’t sound right without good low-end reproduction,” said Self. “But given architectural constraints and the indoor football requirements, the only space we had in which we could place a subwoofer was about 6′ x 6′ x 22. That’s a very small space for the coverage requirement of 10,000 seats.”
Given Danley Sound Labs innovative subwoofer designs, Self contacted Danley President Mike Hedden and discovered that the application was perfect for the newly created Danley BC412.
“The other requirement we had for the sub was that it had to be able to take a direct hit from a football for safety reasons,” explained Self. “Most subs have a simple grill, and it’s not hard to knock it off with a football if you try.
“In contrast, the BC412 uses all internal drivers, so that kind of damage is a non-issue. But really, what makes the BC412 special in this situation is its tremendous output for its size.”
The existing loudspeakers were reused in the newly-raised system, as were existing Crown amplifiers. Because a few of the amplifier channels had failed, Self collected and reassigned functioning channels to existing loudspeakers. A new Lab.gruppen four-channel amplifier powers the BC412, which Danley custom built to accept four amplifier channels.
Given its down-firing placement near the ceiling, the BC412 exhibits a 180-deg conical pattern, which delivers energy to the seats and not to the ceiling.
“Family Arena’s owners and staff love the new low end,” said Self. “It’s amazing what robust low end can do for a system like this. Everyone who hears it is astonished that so much bass is emanating from just one subwoofer!”
