Bassnectar achieves an immersive experience with d&b at the Colorado Rapids stadium

The sound specifications performed by Brown Note at Dick's Sporting Goods Park provided the intimate atmosphere sought for the concert in which more than 80 SUBs, a mix of J-SUBs and J-INFRAs in cardioid mode in front of the main stage.

The most notable feature of Bassnectar concerts is that they provide an immersive experience: the intimacy of a club but on a larger scale.

This intimate atmosphere was achieved at Dick's Sporting Goods Park stadium, located near Commerce City (Colorado) and in which the Colorado Rapids team of the North American soccer league Major League Soccer plays. (MLS). And it was achieved thanks to the efficiency and interpretation of the Bassnectar sound specification by Denver company Brown Note Productions, when he sized the stadium.

“To be a stadium, maintains a certain closeness and intimacy and, when we entered the physical data, coverage mapping was not too complicated. From the place where the stage was located there are approximately 110 meters to the farthest stands. With ArrayCalc of d&b it was very easy to define and ensure uniform coverage”, explica Ryan Knutson, president of Brown Note and director of the audio project for this event.

The original specification was made with d speakers&b audiotechnik, mainly J and V Series. “Large J-Series L/R arrangements were required. But when we designed it we saw that it might be too much, so we remove a couple of boxes per side. This point was important, because we implemented ArrayProcessing (AP) to fulfill Bassnectar's desire for every seat to have an experience like being in the front row without, as he himself said, burst the public's ears", Knutson clarifies.

Bassnectar opted for the D80 amplifiers due to the performance improvements they bring.
The ability of ArrayProcessing to produce a uniform pressure level and the characteristic tonality of d throughout the listening area.&b are well documented, but Knutson and his systems technician Chris Chierello deepened their attention to bass propagation.

“We had more than 80 SUBs, a mix of J-SUBs and J-INFRAs in cardioid mode in front of the main stage. The arrangement measured about 37 meters which allowed us to control the horizontal dispersion up to the range of 20 Hz. “This was part of our approach to ensure that noise leakage into the surrounding residential neighborhoods was reduced.”, continues Knutson.

“When we measured the levels at the property line beyond the stadium it was exactly as predicted.”. The most important thing was that it met all the requirements of the permit for events in that venue”.

Using so many SUBs allowed us to create more uniform coverage and use sound pressure levels (SPL) lower in the listening area. For that reason, the main SUB array and an additional delay array with B22-SUBs, below, in the center of the field, they barely influenced the reduction in profit.