SOURCE: Clair Brothers
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – JULY 2018: Bankers Life Fieldhouse was named Conseco Fieldhouse when it opened its doors in 1999. Conseco Fieldhouse replaced Market Square Arena, the previous home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. The Bankers Life name was instituted in 2011 and to this day the arena remains the Pacers basketball home. It’s also home to the Indiana Fever of the WNBA and plays host to the Big Ten college basketball tournament, ice hockey and numerous live concerts with big time national acts. Despite its multiple uses, Bankers Life Fieldhouse is most closely associated with the Pacers and their yearly quest to make the NBA playoffs and ultimately the championship. They’re on the right track, having come within a single game of making it to the second round of the playoffs this past season after the 2017 off-season acquisition of point guard Victor Oladipo. A lot of excitement surrounds this region’s favorite team once again.
To capitalize on the buzz, the Indiana Pacers organization started looking for ways to pump up the energy on the court during games. They wisely turned to Randy Skaggs at Village Audio for innovative ideas on a high-energy system with low visual impact. The criterion was threefold: Complete courtside coverage on all sides, down-firing court coverage, and all speakers must be self-powered. No simple task considering the high intelligibility to cover the public seating areas and courtside along with zone isolation from the court. Mr. Skaggs, aware of its remarkable capabilities, looked immediately to the Clair Brothers kiT Series for a solution. The kiTCurve, with its 90° H x 15° V coverage pattern, performed solidly for the short throw to the long sides of the court, but Randy recognized that something more directional was needed to project to the far court corners; and for that he sought a TrueFit – another breakthrough Clair Brothers concept.
Clair Brothers and Village Audio collaborated to study the speaker positions and coverage angle requirements. They determined that indeed a custom dispersion on the scoreboard corners could offer better coverage with minimum overlap to other sources. A separate zone was created to cover the court itself and consists of the point source twelve-inch member of the Clair Brothers kiT Series – the kiT12.
Mr. Skaggs sums it up. “I’ve had a great track record with Clair Brothers and learned about the TrueFit concept when they demoed the kiTCurve version at InfoComm last year. For the Bankers Life project, the minute details mattered and were vital to finding the right solution. The fact that Clair Brothers can deliver customized solutions (and relatively quickly too) is an undeniable asset. The team at Bankers Life Fieldhouse is thrilled with the result, as are we!”
Though the 2017-18 NBA season has ended, with an extra boost from Clair Brothers, the Indiana Pacers are set to rock Bankers Life Fieldhouse and make it deep into the playoffs in 2019!
ABOUT CLAIR BROTHERS
Clair Brothers is a world-class sound reinforcement company specializing in the design, manufacturing, and sales of professional loudspeaker systems. Founded by Roy & Gene Clair, the company is built on a tradition of excellence with fifty-plus years in the industry as the premier choice of top artists and audio engineers. Innovative engineering and impeccable attention to detail delivers state-of-the-art audio performance from every Clair Brothers product. Their headquarters in Manheim, Pennsylvania serves as the international distribution network hub facilitating product sales and support. For more information please call (717) 665-4000 or emailcsadd@clairbrothers.com
