Consultants to the Arts and Culture
BANKWEST STADIUM
New stadium project in Western Sydney, completed in 2019.
From the crisp and vocal sound coming through the new PA system to the super fast free Wi-Fi, Bankwest Stadium utilises an impressive array of modern technology that’s both interactive and immersive for fans to experience.
The first things to notice when entering the grandstands is how much clearer the sound is from the speakers while the eye-catching and colourful LED ribbons and HD screens create a thrilling tribal atmosphere as they flash out team hype reels and sponsor content across the stands.
Quote from Australian Leisure Magazine review of the stadium by Blair Hughes.
Acoustical modelling
As with all of our projects, events and fixed installations, we used computer modelling to develop our loudspeaker system designs. This environment allows our engineers to evaluate system performance in the space with all acoustical surfaces of the building calculated as part of the
simulations.
Our design process for Bankwest Stadium included several iterations to optimise the level and intelligibility in the stadium. Our design aimed to deliver the performance established in the construction briefing requiring optimisation in a very reverberant environment.
Commissioning and optimisation
Once the sound system has been designed, installed and tested, we lead the commissioning process.
The commissioning process includes balancing and tuning all the elements of the system. Our aim is to present the venue and operators with the best system possible. To do this, we ensure that the balance of the system caters for the events that will be staged in the stadium, ensuring that high impact music and media content can be reproduced as well as highly intelligible speech.
Additional consultation on events overlay
VenuesLive (the stadium operators) engaged us to provide advice for events overlay. Our work dealt with the suitability of system design proposals by system hire companies and the addition of acoustic treatment. In terms of acoustic treatment, we analysed the impact that large surfaces such as the large screens at each end of the stadium and surfaces on the corporate suits could have on the patron experience. We recommended the addition of temporary acoustic treatment as there is an increased risk that temporary large scale systems can create echoes. Our experience in designing the installed sound system gives us a great understanding of the stadium. This allows us to provide advice from a unique and informed perspective in order to provide a better patron experience.
Audio control system
The system was designed to provide the best experience for typical events at the stadium. However, we understand that depending on stadium attendance, location of broadcast positions and content, slight adjustments can be required by the operator. We have designed a control interface for operators providing a simple solution to ensure that adjustments of the sound system are quick and intuitive.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The people and companies that made it happen.
We were engaged by Nick Orsatti from Fredon Technologies to design and commissioning the loudspeaker system. Since then we have worked with VenuesLive to appoint a production services contractor.
Our Client
Luis and Scott worked on the initial design concepts for the stadium in conjunction with the architect and engineering team. Luis ran the project for us and Scott joined for the commissioning in early 2019.
Our Team
Cameron Mitchell was the project manager for Fredon. Peter Kubow was the sound systems engineer for the project. The entire Fredon Technologies team made this installation possible in a very tight time frame.