From Hockey Games to Nobel Conference, Meyer Sound IntelligentDC Gives Gustavus Adolphus College Arena a Sonic Advantage

With its new Meyer Sound system featuring IntelligentDC technology, Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota is fully equipped to provide exceptional audio coverage for every function in its 1,500-capacity Lund Arena. These events range from hockey games to national programs such as the Nobel Conference, the first ongoing educational conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

“With the Meyer Sound system, we have controlled and uniform sound everywhere, with ample full-bandwidth power and exceptional speech intelligibility,” says Matt Dobosenki, the college’s event technical services coordinator. “With the old system, the sound would build up, overexcite the room and lose coherence. Now it’s clean and has plenty of punch, but it’s never overbearing.”

The solution selected for the arena is a remotely powered system featuring IntelligentDC, the Meyer Sound technology that combines the performance advantages of self-powered loudspeakers with the installation efficiency of Class 2 wiring. A single, five-conductor cable carries remote power and balanced audio signal to the loudspeakers from a rack-mount power supply and signal distribution unit. In the US and many other countries, electric conduit is not required.

“IntelligentDC technology is ideal for this application,” explains Jon Young, CEO of Bloomington, Minn.-based Heroic Productions, who provided and installed the sound system. “We can provide the sound quality you can only get from a self-powered, bi-amplified system, but we don’t need 60 new AC runs up on the roof beams. And with individual control of each speaker, we have total flexibility in zoning the system and balancing the levels. And if the operators want to turn the volume up in the student section twice as loud as the parent section, that’s easily done.”

The Meyer Sound models chosen for the audio upgrade include 19 UPM‑1XP loudspeakers spaced over the ice floor, 20 UPJunior-XP VariO loudspeakers covering the spectator stands, and 16 UMS-1XP subwoofers for full-range musical punch, while eight UP-4XP loudspeakers cover an adjacent hallway. Handling system drive, optimization, and zoning is a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors.

In early October, the Lund Arena hosted the 50th Nobel Conference, authorized by the same foundation that grants Nobel Prizes. The two-day event presented 11 noted leaders in the sciences and humanities from around the world, including three Nobel laureates.