The 40,000-seat stadium T-Mobile Park in Seattle is home to both the Seattle Mariners American professional baseball team and a new d&b audiotechnik xS-Series loudspeaker system, following its installation by technology integrator Diversified. Jeff Sanderson, Senior Design Engineer for Large Venue Sound at Diversified US, was the original system designer for the initial installation at T-Mobile Park and reveals that a sound system upgrade at the venue had been a considerationfor about eight years.

‘The large-scale stadium/arena is vastly different now than ten years ago,’ he says. ‘Baseball and even football have pre-recorded music, but major outdoor sporting events and tours need to tie into a rig to support the venue and achieve high sound quality for both the venue, fans and Diversified clients. Even for events that are beyond baseball, concert and corporate events, consideration needs to be given to the full system, concourse, announcements, etcetera.’

The life span of most US stadia is between ten and 15 years. With its focus on creating the best ‘fan experience’, the Mariners decided in 2020 to transfer to a new system. The system chosen was the d&b xS-Series. ‘Over the years, the greatest change is on the audio network side via Ethernet,’ Sanderson says. ‘Now, we have a fibre backbone to control systems, with no hums, etc. which is nice. Using the Q-Sys plug-in, all the tuning and adjustments for system EQ is controlled through Q-Sys.’

Sanderson knew well the loudspeakers’ capabilities ahead of the project: ‘We did an upgrade for the Anaheim Angels which is all d&b, so we took the Mariners crew down in 2018 to give them a demo during a game time experience. We were demoing systems, head-to-head between two companies but in the end, the client really leaned toward d&b.

‘During the demo process, the quality differences blew the client away, providing an unmatched fan experience – which was our goal. Musically, it required very little adjustment, just fine-tuning with the roof open and closed, and to maximise quality throughout the space.

The upper deck arrays comprise an 18S-Sub mounted together with 24S point source loudspeakers for the front, 12S-D down and 12S-D rear-firing cabinets for the lower seating area. There are 35 positions in the upper deck layout, and more than twice the number of subwoofers compared to the previous system. A VLAN carrying Q-LAN and Dante are on the same network.

‘U brackets used from d&b are another cool thing,’ Sanderson adds. ‘We worked with them for colour choice and custom hardware. The loudspeakers are weather resistant and a special version for stadium use in salty air, direct sunlight, and all weather-related elements. Even the colour delivered was spot on – the same shade of green used on seats, outfield walls and other areas of the ballpark.’

Supporting the sound system, Diversified installed new fibre throughout the venue, working with the Mariners IS department on a separate network island that is not part of a conversion network. For servicing, the user can remotely access the computer and core to address any issues if necessary. SMAART was used for time alignment.

‘The d&b DS10 Dante based interface provides AES outputs for the amplifiers to receive signal,’ explains Sanderson. ‘Q-Sys is being used by the front of house engineer for game time operations and troubleshooting. Should there be an issue, we have ways to get into the guts of the system to diagnose the problem.

Pattern control is especially important in stadiums. The retractable roof at T-Mobile Park can be highly reverberant so we developed a high-density system, getting speakers as close to listeners as possible.’

‘The original system, which was installed when T-Mobile Park opened in 1999, had served its purpose,’ says Seattle Mariners Senior Director of Productions, Ben Mertens. ‘Working with Jeff and his team at Diversified, we were able to use the existing footprint and add speakers without impacting sightlines. The upgrade in the audio experience has helped T-Mobile Park stay current with more recently constructed venues and provide the kind of experience our fans expect.’

‘The experience working with d&b audiotechnik was incredible from my standpoint; we collaborated together, even with the time difference between Germany and the West Coast,’ notes Sanderson.

More: www.dbaudio.com