Harman's JBL Loudspeakers Provide Gold-Standard Sound for the University of Minnesota's Mariucci Arena

Named for John Mariucci, the "Godfather of Minnesota hockey," Mariucci Arena is home to the Golden Gophers, the University of Minnesota's men's hockey team. The 10,000-seat facility opened in 1993, and after almost 20 years, its audio system wasn't sounding so golden anymore. Enter Parsons Electric of Minneapolis, who along with Richmond, Virginia-based A/V and architectural services firm Anthony James Partners renovated the sound system with Harman's JBL PD Series loudspeakers. "Mariucci Arena was a challenging environment because we had a reverberation time of about eight seconds, and there is nothing in the way of acoustical treatment," says Tim Habedank, system specialist for Parsons Electric. "The rink acts as a big, perfectly flat reflector so all the sounds the players make on the ice are bouncing up into all areas of the arena. Combine that with crowd noise during games, which can reach over 100 dBA, and overcoming the sheer volume of the space was a challenge."

Parsons Electric installed 28 PD5322/95 and PD5322/64 loudspeakers in 12 clusters, flown from the ceiling and aimed throughout the arena. Four corner clusters contain three PD5322/64 loudspeakers each, while the other eight clusters each include one PD5322/64 and one PD5322/95. In addition, four PD5322/95 loudspeakers are used as floor fill.

"The best thing about the PD5000 Series loudspeakers is their pattern control and directivity," Habedank says. "A big box is required to achieve this level of control, but the PD boxes are not too big to the point of being distracting. They give us the performance we need, they provide high fidelity and high output, but most importantly, the pattern control is terrific."

Complementing the PD loudspeakers are 12 JBL ASB6128 subwoofers hung in four arrays of three subs each, while 14 JBL Control 25 loudspeakers provide under-balcony fill. "It's a pretty big arena, but those subs can really shake this place," Habedank says.

In addition, 13 JBL CBT70J-1 Constant Beamwidth Technology column speakers are used to fill the press box and upper suite areas. "The CBT's worked perfectly, enabling us to achieve tremendous clarity and intelligibility in the upper areas of the arena by focusing the coverage into the narrow seating area," Habedank points out. "They also have a pretty wide coverage pattern so we can space them out pretty far from each other."

"The system at Mariucci Arena demonstrates the excellent pattern control of PD Series loudspeakers and their ability to create relatively small but powerful arrays," says Brad Ricks, senior application engineer, JBL Professional, who was instrumental in the system design.

"The JBL system rocks," Habedank concludes. "They get as loud as we need them to be, and we could even drive them harder if we had to. There are not too many other loudspeakers we can trust in such a challenging acoustic environment."