- QUEENS, NY--Mets fans will never miss a word when they see their favorite team play at the new Citi Field in Flushing, Queens, New York, thanks to an EAW sound system that's as "amazin'" as the Mets themselves (to borrow the Mets' first manager Casey Stengel's colorful adjective for the team). Over 550 EAW MK and AX series boxes fill the bowl of the 42,000-seat stadium, which opened on April 13, 2009. The systems integrator was TSI Global Companies, LLC, and it was designed by consultants WJHW. The result is a highly focused system that is consistent in quality of sound and intelligibility from the top row to the field boxes.
Employing EAW ensures that, from a sound point of view, everyone has a great seat. The key element of the massive and complex sound system is a customized version of EAW's full-range AX364-210 Arrayable Install Loudspeakers with 60x40 horn, modified to fire simultaneously forward, down and to the rear. A pair of 10-inch woofers was added to the cabinet, aimed downward to cancel low-frequency buildup in what is, essentially, an architectural bass trap. Three of these precisely modified enclosures are installed at the clubhouse level, one of the most challenging spaces in a stadium of this design. Other notable aspects of the system include a large number of under-balcony speakers.
These units make certain that the sound in Citi Field is beamed to hard-to-reach seats under overhanging tiers with the same clarity and intelligibility as everywhere else in the stadium. Furthermore, the system is delayed vertically through the upper and middle-tier levels, with delays ranging from 35 ms to 95 ms, computed using acclaimed SMAART software. Smaller clusters made up of various combinations of EAW MK5396, MK5364 and MK2396 2-Way Full Range Installation Loudspeaker enclosures serve seats on the field's main level and outfield seating sections. "This was an immensely complex and challenging system, engineered to accommodate a sophisticated architectural design, and EAW products are at the core of the solution," says Paul Murdick, Vice President of A/V for systems integrator TSI Global. "The modifications that EAW were able to execute on their AX364 enclosure met the specifications laid out by WJHW to a 'T.' As a result, those boxes are key to the overall consistency of the sound throughout the stadium, even in challenging locations. And the SMAART software made certain that the time alignments were precise and consistent from top to bottom. Thanks to EAW, there truly isn't a bad seat in the house."
EAW...www.eaw.com
