Claiming ‘3.0 Stadium’ status – a venue using technology to enhances the audience experience both in its main role as a sports ground and other, non-sports, events – the Q2 Stadium has opened its gates in Austin, Texas as home to the Austin FC association football team competing in Major League Soccer (MLS)’s Western Conference division.

The US$260m venue will accommodate 20,500 fans on match day, but is also suited to other applications, including entertainment, leisure and outdoor activities.

To heighten the event experience at Q2 Stadium, architect Gensler had designed a large, acoustically resonant roof canopy – the second largest in the MLS – which, in addition to keeping fans cool and dry, amplifies the excitement and roar of the match-day or concert crowd.

Idibri – the local consultancy responsible for the audio, acoustics, video and data/IT for the venue – made the most of Q2 Stadium’s, acoustically resonant design with Idibri’s Ben Boeshans CTS-D designing the sound system around Powersoft’s Mezzo, Ottocanali and X Series amplifiers. Special attention was paid to being able to use the stadium as a non-traditional event venue.

Boeshans, the designer of the audio system for the main stadium ‘bowl’, says the Powersoft amplifierss were chosen to drive a distributed system that is carefully designed to meet the client brief for ‘clear and impactful audio’.

Thirteen Ottocanali 12K4 DSP+D and six Ottocanali 4K4 DSP+D drive the main loudspeakers, which are hung from the main roof structure, with leftover channels feeding audio in the concourse areas. ‘The Ottocanali platforms delivered the right amount of power for the speakers, and the eight-channel half-rack density with Dante and support for speaker voicings made them the right fit,’ Boeshans explains. 

Four X8 and two X4 amplifiers, from the X Series, power the stadium subwoofers, while Idibri’s Luke Krogness  used 27 compact Mezzo AD amplifiers hidden throughout the facility to serve premium spaces. ‘The Mezzo AD amplifiers matrixed facility-wide Dante sources and local analogue inputs so users could select their preferred audio source in each space,’ Krogness explains. The associated reduction in audio cabling to/from each space ‘was an efficient cost-savings approach to provide discrete stereo amplification in each room for personalised experiences for every user.’

For ‘high-energy and impactful reinforcement and playback’, the 52 amplifiers are paired with Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeakers, and connected via Dante to a Q-Sys DSP and Yamaha QL console, explains Boeshans, who adds that the system was installed by Clair Global. All the Powersoft amplifiers feature class-D technology, allowing for an extremely dense power pack of amps, which in turn saves space in the rack. The amplifiers’ class-leading efficiency ‘means less load on the generators in the context of fire conditions’, Boeshans says.

The amplifiers are additionally integrated into the stadium’s public address/voice alarm (PA/VA) system. Both Ottocanali and X Series models feature extensive monitoring capabilities, including live impedance monitoring, and redundant outputs, making them ideal for PA/VA applications where the ability to deliver clear, intelligible messages is key.

The Idibri team also made use of Powersoft’s ArmoníaPlus system design software, with Powersoft’s head of application engineering in North America, Rick Woida, on hand to provide support and help get the best out of a system which is at home with live sound reinforcement as it is with spoken word, music playback and commercials.

‘Q2 Stadium is a celebration of soccer, food, drink and connecting with friends,’ Boeshans concludes. ‘With our design for Q2 Stadium, we wanted to ensure that when it comes to audio, everyone – whether they’re attending a game or a live show – has the best seat in the house.’

‘It was a pleasure to work with the Idibri team to help deliver a fantastic-sounding stadium for Austin FC,’ adds Woida. ‘From the outset, Q2 Stadium was designed to be the best place in the city to watch a soccer game or enjoy some live entertainment, and Powersoft is delighted to have played our part in making that vision a reality.’