The Westville Music Bowl – formerly the Connecticut Tennis Center on the Yale University campus in New Haven – is the first arena worldwide to benefit from d&b audiotechnik’s new re-manufactured Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programme with the installation of a J-Series loudspeaker system.

Able to seat up to 10,000, it currently hosts 4,000 attendees CDC guidelines, as it is completely outdoors and offers a larger capacity than neighbouring music venues. The first show to take advantage of the CPO J-Series was from Government Mule, with most of the remainder of the season’s fully pre-sold.

d&b CPO J-Series was born from an initiative to extend the life of a rider-friendly loudspeaker system while conserving natural resources and reducing waste. Remanufacturing is the process of returning a used product to at least its original manufactured performance and quality standards, and the work is performed at the d&b main US office in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as the company’s factory in Germany.

DNR Laboratories installed the CPO-J: ‘Due to timing of the CPO J-Series becoming available, it was exactly what our client required,’ says President Donnie Gamsjager. ‘Warranty was critical – the CPO J-Series comes with a factory warranty as a used re-purposed system. It was also a huge cost savings over competitors used systems, and even competitors new systems which was vital to the owners’ comfort to use the re-purposed system.

‘We wanted a proven system that no one would ever think twice about. J-Series systems are proven to perform consistently day in and day out. Engineers at front of house know what they are going to get every time in every venue with the J-Series.’

‘The Westville Music Bowl has a strong green initiative and uses solar power during the day – 2,000 seats were removed for solar panels – while all beverage cups are bio-degradable and the entire facility recycles,’ he adds. ‘All vendors engaged at the venue are also asked to follow green initiatives.’

Gamsjager notes d&b loudspeakers’ controlled directivity as another important consideration: ‘The J-Series is known for keeping the sound forward facing and minimising artefacts off the sides and rear of the box. The system stands on its own without subwoofers in the air that would have created a huge noise pollution issue and taken up much of the valuable rigging space. SL-Subs’ cardioid pattern and output were attractive to the owner to keep the low end inside the venue and out of the neighbourhood.

‘d&b NoizCalc software helps predict the venue’s noise emissions and provided useful data when applying for zoning and permits from the city. The best part was that the NoizCalc data was spot on when compared to the report from a third-party firm that was hired independently to analyze noise pollution under show conditions. The city is thrilled with the control of the sound coming from the venue.’

‘We’ve done five shows over two weekends at Westville, and I have to say I am thrilled with the performance of this J-Series rig,’ says Production Manager Tim Burke.’

‘Competitors to d&b just didn’t have the software suite, engineering support, or ability to prove their system would control noise pollution in this venue,’ Gamsjager continues. ‘The system sounds incredible; the venue is incredible, and the J-Series was the reliable solution. The J rig is compact, lightweight, and still, to this day outperforms the competitors’ systems in the same footprint. The ability to keep the sightlines clear using minimal PA while maximising coverage and SPL throughout the venue was a huge win for making every seat location an enhancement to the audience listening experience. Basically, the solution required less J-Series, Y-Series and SL-Subs to complete a working 10,000-seat arena then any competitor.’

The complete system comprises 28 CPO J8/J12 (14 per side), 12 Y8 (out fill, six per side), eight Ti10P (front fill), and eight SL-GSub. Amplifiers are 30D installation models for all loudspeaker systems except for the subwoofers, which are on D80 amplifiers. A dedicated computer running d&b R1 Control software is used for easy-to-work control for audio distribution of the system.

More: www.se-audiotechnik.de