Loaded with all of the modern conveniences and comforts, plus sight lines that have drawn much praise, Ericsson Stadium was designed by the renowned HOK Sports Facilities Group of Kansas City. The signature features of the venue are the impressive yet menacing growling black panther sculptures that adorn the Stadium plaza.

Gary White of WJHW in Dallas, Texas was the lead designer of the Stadium's sound system, with Ford Audio Video of Oklahoma City serving as the system installer and sound contractor.

For Ericsson Stadium, White designed an end-zone speaker cluster system arrayed at the north end more that 13 stories high above the scoreboard. To provide ample power to the full-range Community Leviathans and EAW low-frequency speakers, a total of 86 Crest Audio Professional Series amplifiers have been employed. Located in two amp rooms on either side of the Stadium, the combination of Crest 6001s and 7001s, along with a few FCV 220's and 440's, are controlled by Crest's NexSys computer-control system.

"This was my first experience using Crest's NexSys and I'm really very pleased with it and the performance of amplifiers, in general," says White. "The ability to group amplifiers together gives us great flexibility. At Ericsson, we've taken the Leviathans, M4 drivers and EAW speakers and grouped them so we can monitor and control the entire cluster at once. Plus, we know we can reconfigure, if we have to. It's a very intuitive computer control system."

In addition to handling the main stadium system on football Sundays, in-house system operator Cliff Miller makes use of NexSys even when the Panthers are elsewhere. "With the 'snapshot' feature in NexSys, we have our Game Day configurations all set up and saved for ballgames," explains Miller. "On non-game days, we mute those and have other 'snapshots' we run for things like administration, the buffet rooms and the lounge. And I can do it all from the sound room. I also like the ability to create groups and mute or pull up and area at any time. NexSys is great because it's easy to use."

As the audio producer during Panther games, Miller certainly believes that the sound adds to the home-field advantage. "We really push this system hard during games," says Miller, who works at SE Systems in Greensboro, NC. "The crowd and ambient noise are unbelievable, so we needed a system with a lot of power. We have that here with those Crest amps, that's for sure."

The main cluster covers some 75% of the Stadium's seating capacity, consisting of three fully-loaded Leviathans located in the center with six EAW low-frequency cabinets on either side. A combination of Community and EAWs cover the remaining tiers. Drivers located on the outside of the array include M4s and EM282s.

The Stadium's main speaker system employs a BSS FCS 9020 parametric EQ and a White DSP 5000 for digital crossover. Aphex Dominators handle peak limiting. A 28 x 8 Soundcraft K-3 console is the main house mixer, while Iive routing mixers are also used.