Olympia, Washington’s Onpoint Designs, LLC recently upgraded the audio system in the Seattle Mariner’s Safeco Field. Jeff Sanderson, Principal Consultant and Lead Designer, and Todd Gathany, Senior Consultant, Designer and Programmer undertook the project in which the MediaMatrix Mainframe, which had been in the ballpark for several years, was updated to a NION system. 

Integral to the operation of the stadium, the MediaMatrix system controls numerous feeds throughout the facility including the concourses, the suites, club level, press box,  and the television broadcast truck compound. The challenge in this project was taking the full audio system offline and re-integrating the new system, while seamlessly keeping all of the field’s regular events happening at the same time. The goal of the project was to effectively imitate the pre-existing functions, while at the same time expanding the capabilities for further flexibility in the future.

To meet the extensive routing, delay, equalization, AGC (automatic gain control) and mixing needs of the facility, Jeff and Todd chose five NION n6 processors utilizing CobraNet to tie into an external amplifier control system. “Our client had so much confidence in their old MediaMatrix system, that the move to NION was a no-brainer. Given the high channel count, X-DAB made the NION the best choice. This is an extremely flexible product with capabilities that far exceed other processing products. The interface and control options seem to be limitless.” said Gathany, who oversaw the installation at the field.

Onpoint Designs, LLC - http://www.onpointdesigns.net

Safeco Field - http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/ballpark/index.jsp