MAPLE LEAF SQUARE
tion, Stipac adds, crediting Ramcom’s AV
manager, Mike Mayhew, for running point
on the mounting solution.
“We attached the speakers to the
‘beam to beam’ structure that holds the ac-
tual video wall so we could get them set up
in the optimal position,” Stipac explains.
The new iteration of Iconyx represent
Renkus-Heinz’s latest developments in dig-
itally steerable line array loudspeaker sys-
tems for demanding acoustic environments
such as Maple Leaf Square. Among the in-
novations, there’s the new Acoustic Source
Multiplier (ASM) waveguide, an overall in-
crease in weather resistance, and, forgoing
wood, the use of an ultra-dense, recyclable
PVC plastic compound for the construction
of the enclosures. A single module compris-
es six 19-mm compression drivers on an
ASM waveguide coaxially mounted in front
of two 8-in. woofers. The built-in amplifier
boasts eight amplifier channels, each with
its own dedicated DSP channel.
Specifically, the ICLive X series pro-
vides wider, more detailed, and consistent
coverage. Ross continues: “We were able to
cover the area with the previous system, but
with multiple beams, and not as precisely
or loudly. Whereas with the new uni-beam
technology, it’s one beam that starts about
25 feet in front of the screen and extends all
the way out to York Street.”
Throughout the entire space, he adds,
“The consistency and coverage are pretty
mind blowing.”
In all, six ICLive X arrays are deployed
on the LED wall’s north side to cover the en-
tire square down Bremner Blvd., all the way
to York St., and four are placed on the south
side to cover the area from the screen to
the adjacent buildings. “We’re flanking the
screen in a stereo configuration – north and
south,” Ross clarifies. “On the south flank, we
only needed about 100 feet of coverage be-
cause that’s where we’re hitting a building,
but we’re steering the sound away from the
building, so there’s 100 feet of total cover-
age with no reflections. On the north flank,
28 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
we needed direct coverage all the way out
to York Street, so we used the additional
two boxes to get the coverage we were
looking for.”
Again, the concept is similar to that
applied to the square’s initial AV system
from 2009. “Originally, we were steering the
sound with multiple beams to [cover] our
distance. With the new ICLive, we’re able to
tailor each array that so you can get pret-
ty impressive shading detail. Now, not only
do we have high- and low-pass filters for
each section of that beam, but we have a
volume control as well. As we get up the
street, we’re not looking to blow anybody
away with volume; just to make it intelligi-
ble, and that can be controlled, so we’re not
blasting the front of the square, but giving
them more volume to provide more detail
and make it a more interactive experience.
With the four boxes on the south side, we
can steer away from the buildings and get
right to the crowd standing in front of the
screen or adjacent to it. And again, with the
uni-beam, we can shade on the north side
as needed and not disturb our neighbours.”
The digital steering is done within the
proprietary RHAON II (Renkus-Heinz Audio
Operations Network) platform and allows
for both conventional and uni-beams,
moveable beam centres, and multiple
beams – all independently adjustable in
terms of aim, opening angle, and level. This
offers a degree of accuracy that essentially
allows sound to be directed, literally, right to
the head height of people standing in the
rear of the square and no further.
Stipac points out that this is Ramcom’s
fourth installation of an ICLive X audio solu-
tion, which he believes was one reason they
were tapped for the job. “It’s a great product,
we know how to use it, and it was a perfect
fit for this install,” he enthuses. “Once we fired
the system up to do a test and, even before
any of the tuning was done, we were blown
away by how great it sounded. We absolute-
ly loved being part of this project. I was very
impressed with all the teams that worked
together to get the speakers installed, the
system dialed in, and the job done.”
The project also involved the imple-
mentation of a new Dante network to aug-
ment control and connectivity. “As a facility,
we’ll be moving to Dante throughout, so
we introduced a Dante bridge with the new
ICLives, which works in conjunction with
our existing BSS BLU Link and CobraNet in-
frastructure. We inserted another BSS unit
with the primary function of converting the
signals to Dante,” Ross explains.
Veteran AV systems consultant An-
drew Foord was largely responsible for that
component of the project, in part acting as
a liaison between Renkus-Heinz and Dante
developer Audinate to engineer seamless
interconnectivity between the BSS and
Dante infrastructures.
Foord describes his involvement as
peripheral to the work on the square itself.
“I worked to integrate the ICLive into the
existing DSP system,” he explains. “I was en-
gaged with Scotiabank Arena in summer
2019 for a couple of upgrades. We’re mak-
ing changes to their DSP system and are in
the process of migrating everything but the
bowl from BSS onto [QSC’s] Q-Sys.” As part
of that effort, he adds, “The new loudspeak-
er arrays in the square were integrated over
Dante, partially into the new and partially
into the existing DSP systems.”
He continues: “Scotiabank Arena want-
ed to move all of their audio networking,
ultimately, onto the corporate LAN, so we
were able to put the Q-Sys Q-LAN and all of
the components tied into it onto the cor-
porate LAN.”
A pair of Q-Sys Core 510i integrated
processors located in the arena’s data cen-
tre will eventually service all of the venue’s
clubs. “We’ve also integrated the existing
BSS platform with Q-Sys via Dante over the
corporate LAN, and added a BSS BLU-806 to
the existing BSS infrastructure as a bridge
to Dante, which is then distributed over the
corporate LAN to get to the ICLives. Signal
distribution is coming from the BSS system