The new $68-million Hatfield-Dowlin Football Complex at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, boasts 145,000 square-feet of high-end training space for the UO Ducks football team, including AV amenities normally reserved for professional athletes. To deliver clear, flexible, campus-wide audio, video and control, integrator CompView selected top-shelf equipment, including products from Planar, Biamp Systems, and Crestron.
The Hatfield-Dowlin weight room features seven Planar Systems UltraLux 80-inch LCD displays
Networked audio
The enhanced audio in the facility's training center heightens players' motivation during weight sessions and on-field practices by sending music and crowd sounds throughout the entire facility. Linked by CobraNet throughout the complex, staff can easily adjust content and audio levels from a range of different access points.
- "The Hatfield-Dowlin Football Complex is one of the most advanced college sports facilities ever created," said Eric Boyd, systems integration manager at CompView. "With its impressive architecture, interior design elements, and dynamic use of AV capabilities, the audio solution for this state-of-the-art complex needed to provide enormous flexibility in order to adapt to such diverse spaces. By implementing Biamp's AudiaFLEX and Nexia CS systems, we were able to overcome acoustic challenges without compromising sound quality.”
DigitalMedia for a digital destination
The Hall of Champions at the entrance of the Complex is outfitted with a Dutch acoustical ceiling, 3D sound, and a 64-screen video wall that greets visitors with a mosaic of inspirational 4K videos and stills, plus live sports broadcasts. Crestron DigitalMedia is at the heart of the control and distribution system.
Project representatives stated that Biamp ensures robust sound delivery for every videowall, signage panel, and projector within the center's theaters, meeting rooms, locker rooms, and cafeteria. To further enhance athlete training, AudiaFLEX turns the facility's practice field into a stadium-like experience by blasting 115 decibels of crowd noise. Using Biamp’s Nexia CS, coaching staff can participate in videoconferencing sessions.
Integrating technology that complemented the architectural vision
Planar's Clarity Matrix was chosen for this space based on its ability to accommodate a key architectural element of the center—an L-shaped wall that would create a dramatic focal point in the lobby. Planar representatives believe that the selection of the Clarity Matrix reflects a growing trend in higher education: the use of architecturally-grounded video platforms to create maximum interest among target audiences and to better connect them with the mission, values, and culture of an institution.
“In Hatfield-Dowlin, video wall technology is integral to the architectural fabric of the facility,” says Randy Stegmeier, principal of Firm151, the design and architectural firm that designed the space. “This is a departure from the conventional use of video walls. As such, it says several things, including that Planar understood our design intent, and also that the University of Oregon recognized how technology used in this way would add to its appeal and help in its efforts to attract the best students and athletes.”
The Clarity Matrix video wall was specified to show a variety of information, including University of Oregon branding content, clips of Oregon football games, sports programming and live game footage. Clarity Matrix offers eco-friendly LED backlighting, 800 nits of brightness, a 3500:1 contrast ratio, and over 132 million pixels. “All of these combine to provide a picture that is stunning whether viewed close-up by someone in the lobby or by passersby right outside or even a block away,” Firm151’s Stegmeier says.
“Without question, the Planar displays help us to share the vision and philosophy that is Duck football. Whether the focus is based on teaching, recruiting, motivation or analysis, the Planar systems help us to assist our current players to improve and furthermore to attract future top performers into our program,” said Jeff Hawkins, Oregon’s Senior Associate AD for the football program.
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