Metinteractive Provides AV Support for Major Renovations at SHU’s William H. Pitt Center Sports Facility
Metinteractive, which provides strategic solutions for architecture, communication and technology, supplied extensive AV services for the major renovation of The William H. Pitt Center, the three-level, 141,000 square foot facility that serves as the heart of Division I athletics and the home of men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, wrestling and fencing at Sacred Heart University (SHU) in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Last year Metinteractive was responsible for the sports engagement technology at SHU’s new Martire Family Arena, which houses the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I hockey programs, the university’s nationally-ranked figure skating team and men’s club ice hockey team, as well as the women’s club program.
This year, SHU asked Metinteractive to return for the Pitt Center renovations, which coincided with the SHU Pioneers’ transition from the Northeast Conference to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), a move that connects the university with a growing national presence and media following.
The new arena inside the Pitt seats 2,000 and features a state-of-the-art broadcast control center and three giant video boards. The renovations also deliver a high-quality fan experience with the addition of a mezzanine for VIP seating and events sound systems and lighting. The venue serves as a gathering space for the SHU community and, in addition to sports, hosts concerts, Relay for Life events, lectures and convocation ceremonies. The SHU Athletics Department is housed on the upper level while the lower level boasts an aerobics room, weight training facility, locker rooms for varsity teams and members, the Pioneer Wrestling Room and offices for the varsity football staff.
“All of the renovations are designed to enhance the fan experience,” says Rich Gold, CTO and Engineer at Metinteractive. “The project was very much in our wheelhouse. We knew all the players, so that made it easier to coordinate the other trades and reduce the stress level associated with any renovation of this size.”
“The Pitt Center offered some unique challenges, particularly with designing a full-featured system which was also compatible with the physical constraints presented in the project,” notes Rhys Dawson, Metinteractive’s Lead Field Engineer on the project. “The experience which comes from working on a wide range of projects has allowed us to exercise a greater degree of flexibility when custom-tailoring solutions for our clients.”
Metinteractive provided the PA system in the arena and built the broadcast control room plus a separate control room for broadcast audio. They created separate components’ setups on the scoring tables at the sidelines of the court to handle sound for the warm-up show, the broadcast announcers and video feeding the Daktronics displays. Metinteractive also completed all the wiring for AV, broadcast and the Daktronics boards; the company installed junction box television around the arena walls to plug in cameras, fiber optic cabling and the Daktronics displays.
Daktronics designed, installed, commissioned and tested several of its DVN products at 5.9mm pixel pitch in the Pitt Center. A 74 x 8-foot ribbon-shaped display runs above the bleachers while at the other end of the court two separate 18 x 9-foot displays hang at opposite corners, angled toward the court. All run live video, advertising, scoring and statistical content. Daktronics control equipment drives some of the content, new shot clocks and scoring.
“Early on, I had extensive conversations with Rich about how to achieve the client’s objectives: handling the cabling, the locations of the control equipment and the control room, how to connect to the video content system,” says John Mette, Senior Project Manager at Daktronics. “Although I have been at Daktronics a long time, this was my first time working with Metinteractive, and it was an in-depth collaboration.”
He notes that he particularly liked “how Metinteractive spanned the project from high-level conceptual down to the details. It was a real soup-to-nuts approach, and I was impressed. Some companies are good at one thing or another; it’s not common to find one with expertise that ranges from the broad to the specific.”
Equipment choices for the Pitt Center were all well-proven, top-of-the-line brands. The PA system features d&b Audiotechnik C7-TOP loudspeakers and subs and d&b 30D amplifiers. The arena sound digital mixing console is an Allen & Heath SQ5 with an SQ6 in the broadcast control room. All sound is Dante.
Shure microphones fulfill a range of functions. There are ULX-D digital wireless mics; VP89 shotguns overhead, at each basket and three along the sidelines; MX391 boundary mics flat on the floor to capture sneaker squeaks; and MX183 lavs in the padding behind each net so fans can hear the ball swish. Communication is facilitated with Clear-Com digital and wireless intercoms.
The broadcast control room has a Ross Video Ultrix router and Carbonite production switcher, gear similar to that in the Martire arena’s hockey control room. “We wanted to provide a familiar working environment for operators,” says Gold. “The university has a graduate sports broadcasting program, so students are able to learn the tools and handle different sporting events on a content level.”
Six Hitachi broadcast cameras include one with an ABonAir wireless system for extra video signal transmit and receive capabilities. Each basketball backboard has a Panasonic PTZ camera; four more are mounted in ceiling trusses for a high-angle perspective of the game, primarily for the DVSport replay system used by the referees.
The broadcast control rooms at the Pitt Center and the Martire arena are ready for a proposed renovation to the football facility that would make a campus-wide tie-in of all the control rooms an efficient next step.
In addition to Gold and Dawson, “one of our other Broadcast Engineers, Barry Grossman, brought a lifetime of production video knowledge to the table and was instrumental in the setup and handoff of the Ross broadcast system,” Dawson reports.
“It was great to be part of another SHU project – and one that enabled us to deepen our relationship with Daktronics,” says Gold.
“It was a nice opportunity to work with Daktronics again,” adds Dawson. “They provided a smooth integration process, from installation to commissioning, and they held this job to their usual high standards.”
“The expansive AV role that Metinteractive played was truly impressive,” says Daktronics’ Mette. “Rich was just unflappable, cool as a cucumber all day under all circumstances.”