L-Acoustics provides the best sound to the spectacular Long Beach pyramid

Considered the largest space structure in North America, Walter Pyramid has renewed its sound infrastructure with L-Acoustics Ai Series.

The company Vizual Symphony has been the company in charge of renewing the sound infrastructure of the spectacular sports building Water Pyramid, who opted for the system L-Acoustics Ai Series.

Home of Long Beach State basketball and volleyball for more than 20 years, Walter Pyramid has become a national icon for the university and the city of Long Beach. Its spectacular appearance, multipurpose capability and appeal for television production, has made it one of the best university sports facilities in the Western United States.

Its exterior uniqueness also presents interior geometric challenges. With its more than 105.000 meters on each side of the perfectly square base is believed to be the largest spatial structure in the country. Accommodates three full basketball courts and four additional half basketball courts, in addition to having a cantilever seating system mounted on mobile platforms.

When use of the floor level is required for physical education classes, each seating platform 81 tons can be raised hydraulically to expose more than 11.887 square meters of beech wood floor.

The building also has a state-of-the-art conference center, The Pointe, a premier venue for academic conferences, workshops, seminars and banquets. Walter's Pyramid also features the Long Beach State Strength and Conditioning Center.

However, Walter Pyramid also stands out for presenting the best sound of a pyramid, thanks to the installation of a new L-Acoustics Ai Series sound system. A project completed earlier this year.

The original public address system, installed at the beginning of the decade 1990, had more in common with those of ancient Egypt, since it was old and had obsolete technology. It was ineffective for this type of building. Its suspended speakers had stopped working at the beginning of the year and were being replaced by other portable ones..

The search for a new sound system for the venue was quite a challenge considering its geometry., its unique movable seating system and the venue's requirements to accommodate a wide range of activities, from sports to banquets.

Unlike many venues with retractable seating, The lower room of the Water Pyramid is foldable and rises in drawbridge-like sections to create an open floor plan. In this 'seats up' configuration, the metal bottoms of the seat sections become acoustic reflectors around the lower bowl.

The Vizual Symphony company, based in Burbank, was the integrator in charge of the installation of the new L-Acoustics Ai Series system, while the design was the responsibility of the consultant Idibri. The project included the replacement of the entire truss system, which was no easy task in a building without parallel surfaces.

In addition, It was necessary to make new audio wiring and it was done with wires of 8 that they had to travel until 58 metros, place where the highest point was.

New speaker system design is typical for an arena installation. A four-sided array with A15i Focus speakers as main cabinets, two for suspension, except for a suspension, which has only one A15i to shorten it over an area without stands.

The four pendants are reinforced with a A15i Wide at the bottom and a sub KS21i at the top. A horizontally hung array of four A10i Wides provides court floor coverage. An amplified controller LA2Xi and another LA4X they feed and process the entire system.

“The old sound system had acoustic challenges due to the shape and design of the building. The volume setting for the lower seating area would be at a level, while the fans in the upper seats would be literally exploding”, explains Mark Edrington, senior associate director of athletics at Long Beach State

Ryan Knox from Idibri reveals the secret of how the installation was carried out. “We used the flexibility of the Ai Series vertical and horizontal patterns to maximize seat coverage and minimize sound hitting the walls in both the ‘seats above.’ as in the 'seats below'. Sound vision Coverage was tested quickly and Ease was used to verify that the design was optimized for the unique acoustic environment and would achieve intelligibility goals, which he did".