Venues Tackle Sound in Upper-Deck Seating With more non-sports events booked, facilities turn attention to high-quality audio to the rafters By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, February 6, 2020 - 11:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
For decades, the upper-deck seating areas of sports venues were denigrated as cheap-seat, nose-bleed territory for budget-conscious fans who would duck the ushers and migrate to better seats as soon as the score got too lopsided (or in Chavez Ravine, the 6th inning).
Today, with the venues serving as places for concert touring, political rallies, and other events with high-dollar tickets, the upper seats have taken on new importance. And they're starting to get the sound they deserve.
When new [sports venues] open, the architects and others think of it as crossing the finish line; instead, we're often just getting started when it comes to the sound, says Ted Leamy, GM, Pro Media, the AV-systems integrator on such projects as the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, the Green Bay Packers' Lambeau Field, and Atlanta Braves' Truist Park (formerly SunTrust Park). The upper decks of many stadiums just never got the number of speakers they needed to sound as good as the rest of the venue.
Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium expanded its Electro-Voice sound system to serve a growing concert schedule.
One place where that has changed is AT&T Stadium, whose Electro-Voice sound system, installed in 2009, was expanded last summer ahead of the NFL season. Two arrays, comprising 54 loudspeakers, were added to the 14 XLCi127DVX compact three-way delay systems covering the upper level. They are powered by 20 additional Electro-Voice TG series amplifiers, each equipped with RCM-26 remote-control DSP modules. A NetMax N8000 digital matrix controller was also added. The work was done by Pro Media, working with system designer WJHW and the Cowboys' own audio-engineering department.
Leamy, a former touring-system sound technician, says the new emphasis on upper-deck sound is driven by a combination of economics and expectations. With the music-touring business at $28 billion annually and expected to hit $38 billion by 2030, according to touring trade publication Pollstar, ticket prices are soaring for all seats in a venue, compelling venue managers to ensure concert-level sound to the buildings' rafters.
Anything less could darken a venue's reputation on social media after a single poor experience. Minneapolis's old Metrodome had such a poor reputation for its acoustics for music that the opening of its replacement, U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016, provoked high hopes for improvements. Those hopes, however, were quickly dashed.
Chances are, the people sitting in the upper decks these days just got out of SUVs that had better sound systems, observes consultant Kevin Day, associate principal, WJHW, which consulted on the AT&T Stadium sound system. Great sound at every seat isn't a luxury anymore; it's a utility.
Tough House
But upper-deck seating is probably the toughest nut to crack for stadium sound-system designers.
The late reflections at that height are so much later, necessitating more speakers closer to and focused on those seats, Leamy explains. And the sheer distance even from most line-array speakers is farther than for any other seating in a stadium. So those seats need their own sets of speakers, along with their own specific processing, which can be adjusted by the venue's engineering staff for sports or entertainment applications. DSP allows them to adjust the system optimization for whether the stage is in the middle or at one end of the floor, which affects the arrival time of the sound to those seats.
The addition of more speakers up high in AT&T Stadium has been beneficial, both for music and for sports, says Gary French, audio engineer in charge, Dallas Cowboys. The added loudspeakers capped a nearly two-year effort to remedy the upper deck's sound, which included redirecting some existing speakers and some acoustical-bass trapping - tweaks he referred to as Band-aids - before the new line arrays were added.
Upper decks are their own worlds, he says. Here, we have three levels of seating, then three levels of suites, and then a small porch before you get to the upper seats. Addressing it took more than just a few adjustments.
But the outcome was worth it. Audiences have noticed better sound in those seats, which in turn helps the venue attract more and better-selling music shows. And it has also benefited the sound for sports: although AT&T Stadium, the U.S.'s largest-capacity domed stadium, has plenty of inherent low end - its decay time is a lengthy 11.5 seconds at 60 Hz and 7.5 seconds at 1.5 kHz, compelling the house sound to be high-passed above 450 Hz - that low-frequency energy could get mushy at altitude.
French says the new 15-in. speakers covering the upper deck bring better LFE definition to those seats: We get increased low-end punch for non-music events. That was an unexpected but very welcome benefit.
Day credits the Cowboys' ownership, who he says is willing to regularly reevaluate the venue's sonic performance and capitalize any sound-system improvements deemed necessary as more top-level touring artists pass through the stadium. This year, the lineup includes Kenny Chesney, Florida Georgia Line, and Justin Bieber.
In fact, venues like AT&T Stadium now refer to the concerts between sports events as having their own season. An arena can generate twice as much net income from a concert as from an NBA or NHL game, according to Oak View Group, an entertainment- and sports-facilities company that also owns Pollstar. The company plans to develop eight new arenas over the next three years, six of which will not host any major-league teams, largely to keep
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Venues Tackle Sound in Upper-Deck Seating With more non-sports events booked, facilities turn attention to high-quality audio to the rafters By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
