The soundtrack to Toronto Raptors hustling down basketball court or Toronto Maple Leafs checking opponents have acquired a new level of intensity at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

In readiness for the NBA Finals, the arena was the first to bring new technology into the massive scoreboard hanging over the playing surface to better capture the sounds of the game. Those sounds are pumped into the Scotia Club with the potential for distribution to suites throughout the arena to provide additional genuine game atmosphere for fans.

Led by Westbury National, one of Canada’s largest professional audiovisual integration and full-service event production companies, and SFM, a leading Canadian product distributor and provider of custom A/V solutions, the original plan was to install Shure shotgun microphones. While these provided great sound, the challenge was that once they were installed, getting 42 feet into the air to reach them on the scoreboard and adjust them to switch between basketball and hockey games was just not feasible.

One idea was to mount new microphone technology onto the scoreboard, Shure’s Microflex Advance MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone – a microphone originally designed for office applications and features directional beam arrays to capture sound from the right sources. The beauty of this type of microphone is that its recording patterns can be customised with software and remotely adjusted to fit the specific needs of the venue. Two Shure MXA 910s are now installed on the bottom of the giant scoreboard hanging over the playing surface.

‘The MXA910s can be programmed to a variety of different configurations remotely with the touch of a button,’ says Steve Svensson at Westbury National. ‘With the presets, we can maximise the sounds based on the game situation to provide fans with the best audio experience possible.’

Fans watching from suites aren’t as close to the playing surface, so they sometimes are unable to hear the sounds naturally. This solution provides genuine gameplay audio right into the speakers of the suites.

The mic technology also helps reject non-essential sounds – a crowd clapping on a microphone may detract from the sounds on the court or ice, so the microphones are set up to only capture the key sounds from game action, like the puck hitting the post or the basketball players and coaches calling plays.

‘We’re proud to provide our fans with the best gameday experiences,’ says Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Chief Technology & Digital Officer, Humza Teherany. ‘Making our suite guests feel closer to the action on the ice or court by providing the best sound possible is a major win for everyone.’

During the NBA Finals games at Scotiabank Arena, the audio from the Shure MXA910 was also being mixed used by the Raptors broadcast team to heighten the fans listening experience.

More: www.shure.com