In the "NHL Zone"
at the Hockey Hall of Fame

Project 
The “NHL Zone” is the new gateway to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Here, visitors can immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of Canada’s national pastime! With this recent re-design, the Hall wanted to enhance the visitor experience with state-of-the-art audio and video.

Passing between Ken Dryden and Cyclone Taylor (the impressive statues guarding the entrance), you enter the “NHL Legends” area. The voices of great hockey players greet you with stories of past playoff glories, while the sights and sounds of hockey flow around you.

Challenge 
Designing the new sound system was “an interesting challenge,” says Videoscope’s Christian Bechard. “We had to make the system virtually invisible, but the audio quality still had to be excellent.”

Scope 
Audio can sound thin in a space like this, so subsonic speakers were added to “warm up” the sound. To maintain the clean look, they are installed into the base of display cases.

To disperse the sound evenly throughout the space, small satellite speakers are mounted at intervals, hidden up between the stainless steel ceiling panels. 

In Presentation Mode the AV System sends scheduled video content (Mpeg format) from the server to the main projector and to dual plasma screens, along with the audio program to the hidden speakers in the “Legends” area.

A separate feed from a DVD player goes to the “Canadiens’ Dressing Room” feeding two 20” monitors, with audio sent to a pair of ceiling speakers.  A third computer sends graphics to six 17” monitors in the “NHL Today” display cases beside the store.  

Since the Hockey Hall of Fame hosts many special events like the Annual Induction Ceremony, the sound system must also handle the live event audio.
In PA Mode, all speakers are linked to become one large PA system.

The sound reinforcement system uses a Soundweb London Blu-80 DSP (digital sound processor) for maximum flexibility.  This system allows the operator to reconfigure at the touch of a button.  It also provides automation.  With two sensing microphones, it actually detects the ambient noise level and turns the volume up or down to accommodate the number of people in the space.

In the future, as older systems in the Esso Theatre and the Hartland Molson Theatre are upgraded with Soundweb processors, they will communicate with the Soundweb in the NHL Zone over a LAN (local area network) to link all areas together.

Videoscope is proud to provide cutting edge audio solutions to celebrate the sound of Canada’s hockey legends!

Contact us toll-free at 1.877.387.2673 or email us at sales@videoscope.com  
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