Home to the San Diego Toreros men’s and women’s basketball teams, as well as the San Diego Toreros women’s volleyball team, the 5,100-seat Jenny Craig Pavilion indoor arena in San Diego, California, has received an audio makeover based around a 14-box Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeaker system and 11 cloud-based Powersoft Unica 9K4 amplifier platforms. The project also included the integration of a new broadcast system for the arena.
Located on the campus of the University of San Diego, the Jenny Craig Pavilion (JCP) broke ground in 1999 and was refurbished in 2015, when it was equipped with a redesigned floor and LED scoring tables – though the recent upgrade is the first major overhaul of the ageing audio system since its opening.
‘I’ve used Powersoft amplifier platforms many times over the course of my career, but these new ones [Unica] were hot off the manufacturing press,’ says ITI Systems Chief Technology Officer John Pierce, the integrator who paired the Unica amplifiers with Sub118 subs for installation. ‘As our first deployment with this particular amplifier, it was a relief to find out how easy it was to configure, and the support from Powersoft was almost immediate – you call the phone and they pick up and provide technical support, which we also appreciated.’
‘They we relooking to get quality power for their new audio: intelligibility and efficiency were the key drivers,’ says ITI Systems Director Of Strategic Initiatives and project manager for the install, Peter Hogan.
He explains that the choice of Unica was key to meeting the brief for a more efficient audio set-up that would deliver a high-impact audio experience while still fitting into the existing venue infrastructure: ‘The Powersoft amps are more efficient than the old system, so they were able to power more speakers using less electricity. Space saving was also important in the existing location, and because of the amplifiers’ compact size, we were able to eliminate a rack. So, it was a combination of power, efficiency and the ability to deliver the sound that [the university] was expecting – and Unica does that for sure.’
Unica is Powersoft’s cloud-based third-generation amplifier platform for fixed installations. A one-platform-fits-all solution, the Unica range is designed to meet the requirements of installs of all sizes and scopes, enabling AV professionals and system integrators to cover a huge range of applications within a single amplifier family.
Working to a design by A/V consultant Anthony James Partners, Hogan and the team specified Q-Sys processing and Dante networking for the arena, with the entire system able to be controlled by the JCP athletics department from a touchpad on the mezzanine. ‘The intelligibility, clarity and the overall performance that Unica provides, it’s a great match for the Fulcrum [speakers] and the rest of the system,’ Pierce says.
In addition to its unmatched power and energy efficiency, Pierce praises Unica’s cloud capabilities and MyUniverso software for enabling the easy remote monitoring of the amplifiers. ‘We’re very pleased with the performance and power and monitoring capabilities in the [MyUniverso] software,’ he says. ‘We can see how [the amps] are performing and how they’re doing with power, control, and applying power appropriately. We like that visibility. So, that was a great tool as well.’
Both the ITI Systems team and the end-user are more than satisfied with the result, Pierce reports. ‘The feedback from the athletics team has been great – they’re very happy with both our performance and their new system. In terms of efficiency and intelligibility, this upgrade is such a major difference for them. It’s really nice to have worked on a project where the end result is so valued and appreciated by the client.’
