You can practically hear it.
Replacing the sound system in Barrie’s Sadlon Arena, which failed on the weekend, is within earshot.
Dawn McAlpine, the city’s general manager of community and corporate services, said the south-end arena's sound system failed during Saturday night’s Ontario Hockey League game between Barrie and Brantford due to an issue with the firmware associated with the digital components in the main signal processor.
“The issue was resolved during the second period by bypassing the digital equipment,” she told BradfordToday and InnisfilToday. “The city’s sound system contractor identified the issue with the system firmware and it has been addressed. The system has since been restored, tested and is operating properly.”
In 2022, city council approved $375,000 in funding for the sound system project at Sadlon Arena, McAlpine said. A sound system design consultant produced a design and the specific requirements for a contractor to complete a replacement of the system.
“Based on the available budget and anticipated costs, initially there were insufficient funds for a complete replacement,” she said. “As a result, the project was split into two phases. The phase-one work was designed to provide significant relief to ongoing sound quality issues regardless of whether phase-two funding was approved in 2023 budget.”
As part of the first phase, all audio-processing components within the sound booth were replaced, including two new digital amplifiers, replacing three existing ones, a digital mixer and ancillary components, network I/O processor and system expanders, uninterruptible power supplies, plus digital processing (aka ‘smarting’) of the sound stream based on arena acoustics, McAlpine said.
The system wiring was replaced to meet current code requirements, as were the damaged components found in four of 28 speakers, such as failed tweeters, woofers, etc., so all 28 speakers are fully functional.
Council approved the additional funding to complete the entire project in 2023, after the first phase of work was started.
The second phase is underway, McAlpine said. It includes the acoustic redesign of the overall sound system, expected to result in speaker relocation, procuring and installing all new speakers and field wiring and digitally recalibrating the entire system to fully leverage the capabilities of the upgraded sound booth/control room equipment.
“Installation of the new speakers can only occur once the Barrie Colts’ season ends,” she said, “since there isn’t sufficient time between games for this work.”
Mayor Alex Nuttall, who was at the game with members of Brantford city council, described the sound system as “non-functional” and “ugly.” He said there was the same problem at the Barn Burner Charity Hockey Game last August at the arena.
Contacted for comment Sunday on Sadlon Arena's sound system, Jim Payetta, the team’s vice-president of marketing and business development, said the Colts had issued a statement to their fans about the situation.
In the statement, the team said city staff was aware of the situation and was working toward "replacing the sound system this summer. As you can understand, this is a major undertaking and takes time to complete."
A 2023 capital project detail report on the Sadlon Arena sound-system replacement shows $375,000 in prior funding approval and an expenditure of $186,000 that year, for a total of $561,000, funded from the city’s tax capital reserve.
The report also said the speakers and sound system was nearing the end of its useful life, and the sound quality is becoming increasingly poor. It said the sound system has been patched and modified in recent years in an attempt to keep it working.
The 2023 capital project report concluded the now 23-year-old sound system is outdated and needs a new modern system when Sadlon Arena hosts a variety of events, most notably Barrie Colts junior hockey.
