Memorial Gymnasium - UBC

Built in 1945 the University of British Columbia’s War Memorial Gymnasium Located in Vancouver, British Columbia has installed a new Adamson System.  With a capacity of 2,200 regular seating and 600 capacities in the bleachers for basket-, and volleyball games, the venue’s previous system had become inadequate as the SPL and clarity were seriously lacking in today’s standards. Not at all surprising when discovered that the gym still had its original Altec Lansing (JBL) “Voice of the Theatre” design created in 1944, in place. The old design was placed as a center cluster, and somewhat later a JBL distributed system around the perimeter of the bleachers was added. The new Adamson design also features a center cluster design for this speech only environment, and while waiting for a possible phase 2, the distributed system has been shut down, as the SpekTrix system’s wide horizontal coverage of 120 degrees is providing ample coverage for the venue’s current announcing needs.

After uploading the specs of the gymnasium into the shooter software program, it became apparent that the Adamson Spektrix Line Array cabinets would best suit the performance needs. Contractor LTS Pro Sound & Lighting based in Vancouver has had extensive experience using the Series and knew this would be the right box to give the intelligibility in the vocal range that the room desperately needed. The Adamson SpekTrix is also a reliable and consistent product for a venue with limited technical crew in staff.

   The University purchased four SpekTrix 5 degree cabinets with two 15 degree Spektrix W’s placed at the bottom of the array, and a single SpekTrix Sub is flown on the top. The array is flown at a height of 30’ (9.25m) in the front and dead center of the gymnasium, just above the scoreboard. Entirely powered by Lab.Gruppen amplifiers and Adamson controlled with the M Series processor. The university is working towards phase two, the upgrading of the old distributed system. As whether it’ll be a line-array or a point source speakers design is dependent on budget and approval.

Megan Robinson, Manager of the War Memorial Gymnasium, commented that she was: “Very impressed with the intelligibility during announcing of the ball games, and pleasantly surprised with the overall coverage of the single sounds system throughout the gym. The continuous compliments from contracted announcers who enjoy working with the system, says it all”.

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