washing – worked flawlessly for over nine
years.
Courtney Ross, MLSE’s Senior Audio
Engineer/Supervisor, Venue Technology
Operations, explains that the guiding prin-
ciple behind the initial system design was
to “do more with less” in terms of audio.
While the new video wall’s overall size
has been increased by 37 per cent, and the
loudspeaker count raised to 10 of Renkus-
Heinz’s latest-generation Iconyx ICLive X
array modules, that ethic also drove the
project – and, specifically, the choice to re-
invest in a Renkus-Heinz steerable solution
– this time around.
As with the previous system, powerful
but compact and aesthetically discreet loud-
speaker arrays were necessary, as was ensur-
ing the sound was precisely targeted at the
crowd and not the surrounding buildings.
The initiative to update the square
began with the rebranding of the facility as
Scotiabank Arena following the financial in-
stitution’s purchase of naming rights in 2017
– an effort Ross describes as “the reimagina-
tion of the arena” pertaining to everything
from seating, signage, and wayfinding to the
building’s exterior façades and, most recent-
ly, the 2019 upgrade to Maple Leaf Square.
Work in the square, however, had to
wait until the NBA playoffs wrapped up –
which, thanks to the team’s success, didn’t
come until mid-June.
Chuck Roscoe, MLSE’s Manager of AV
Integration, says that the choice of LG LED
display products for Maple Leaf Square was
made relatively early on. “It’s obviously a
larger video wall and an upgrade in resolu-
tion, and LG is a global partner with MLSE,
so we wanted to support them as they sup-
port us,” he explains. “It’s about functional-
ity for us. We had the back-end in place to
deliver 4K, and complementing that is the
62 by 35-foot LED wall, with an 854-inch
diagonal. It’s quite massive, with 5,300,000
pixels, a max brightness of 6,500 nits, and a
pixel pitch of 6 mm. In all, there are almost
1,300 outdoor-rated, custom-produced
display modules specifically built and de-
signed for this project.”
A team from nationwide firm Patti-
son Sign Group’s Scarborough location
was tasked with integrating the video wall
and its associated components, working in
close collaboration with Roscoe and David
SIX RENKUS-HEINZ ICLIVE X DIGITALLY STEERABLE ARRAY MODULES COVERING THE NORTH
SIDE OF MAPLE LEAF SQUARE
FOUR DISCREET RENKUS-HEINZ ICLIVE X MODULES COVERING THE SOUTH SIDE OF MAPLE LEAF SQUARE
August, MLSE’s Director of Venue Technolo-
gy and Production, and general contractors
PCL Construction.
“We wanted to make the screen big-
ger, and as we were doing that, the ques-
tion was what to do with the existing audio
infrastructure,” Ross shares. “So David August
and I sat down and researched new tech-
nology and came right back to the Ren-
kus-Heinz products, specifically because the
new products were a marked improvement
over what was installed in the square. Not
that the previous system wasn’t good, but
the ICLive X fit the philosophy of making
this a bigger and better experience.”
While the new build and systems offer
up enhanced sights and sounds befitting
the Raptors’ first full season as reigning NBA
Champions, Renkus-Heinz ICLive X loud-
speakers actually present a smaller individ-
ual footprint than their previous versions
and more sophisticated control over exactly
where the sound hits and where it doesn’t.
Integrators Ramcom Communications
Inc. were charged with the construction as-
pects of integration and the final install of
the ICLive X arrays and related components.
“They installed the first LG LED product we
went with at the Coca-Cola Coliseum and
I had a great experience with them there,”
says Roscoe, who managed all aspects of
the timing and cooperation between vari-
ous teams for construction and integration
of the current infrastructure.
The sheer scale of the project carried
some inherent challenges, according to
Thomas Stipac, Ramcom’s project manager
for Maple Leaf Square. Ensuring the installa-
tion of all the AV elements was done prop-
erly and safely was the biggest preoccupa-
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 27