Grand Canyon University’s 5,000-seat GCU Arena has been upgraded with L-Acoustics ARCS WIDE and KARA loudspeaker systems supplied by Clearwing Productions.

The sports venue’s new audio set-up, which is used for athletics events, commencement ceremonies and other general assemblies consists of 32 ARCS WIDE enclosures. These are split into four clusters of three cabinets spread across each of the long sides of the arena and complemented with one centre cluster of four at each of the far ends. Two arrays of four SB28 subwoofers are hung in the centre back-to-back for LF reinforcement, while two six-enclosure KIVA arrays horizontally down-fire onto the court for floor coverage. Seven LA8 amplified controllers located in the catwalk area power and process the system.

"GCU was looking for a sound reinforcement system that provided a truly immersive game experience for its fans, so we recommended an L-Acoustics solution," said Clearwing Productions project manager Andre St. Pierre. "The university was ideally looking for something that performed more like a concert sound rig, and the ARCS WIDE platform provided that at a price that fit their budget."

"One of the other nice things about the ARCS WIFO series is that the enclosures are passive, which allowed us to put so many more boxes on each amplifier. To deliver concert-level audio to every seat in the house like this system does would have cost much more with a competitive system. ARCS WIFO offers tremendous performance at an extremely affordable price point."

The other new system at GCU Arena is a portable touring rig equipped with left and right arrays of four SB18 subs flown above 12 KARA units per side that can be quickly installed and removed. Eight SB28 subs for ground-stacked LF, six ARCS II for out-fill, five 8XT for front-fill and four LA-RAK for power complete the set-up, which can be configured as either a full-house or half-house system for Christian and secular touring artists, worship services and other purposes.

"Clearwing has been providing concert sound for most of our touring events and larger productions over the past two years, and they’ve frequently brought in KARA," commented GCU Arena audio engineer Ian Schell. "So when the time came to upgrade our basketball audio system, it made good financial sense to simultaneously invest in our own in-house KARA system seeing that it’s already proven itself here in the arena many times over."

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