INTRODUCTION
Home to the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans football team, the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a premier outdoor stadium equipped to host major sports teams and entertainment acts. Approaching its centennial in 2023, “The Coliseum” serves as a living memorial to all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War I and is recognized as a National and California Historic Landmark. With a capacity of 78,000 guests, it has hosted two Summer Olympics, a Democratic National Convention, two Super Bowls, a World Series, NBA championships, and countless memorable concerts.
THE CHALLENGE
Ahead of the 2018 football season, USC embarked on a mission to renovate and restore The Coliseum to provide fans with the best gameday experience possible. Not only would this renovation enhance game days for Trojan fans, but also deliver a premier entertainment experience for a variety of other events
THE SOLUTION
USC identified Crestron as the ideal manufacturer to provide AV distribution and room control solutions across the various clubs, luxury suites, and lounges across the stadium.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Premium seating and unrivaled views are offered throughout the Scholarship Club Tower luxury suites. Each features 4K displays driven by Crestron DigitalMedia™ technology. “Crestron DigitalMedia is instantaneous, and the responsiveness is great,” explains Joe Way, Director, Learning Environments, University of Southern California. “This has been so important on game days because the system doesn’t bog down, and every suite can be turned on at once without any lag.” Paying homage to the year the Coliseum opened, the 1923 Club is a rooftop deck located on the seventh level. Guests enjoy an unparalleled panoramic view of the stadium, as well as the surrounding Los Angeles area. The space can be rented to host presentations, parties, or other events, which can also be broadcast to any or all of the 500 displays installed across the Coliseum. Using Crestron TSW touch screens, the staff is able to control audio, video, microphones, and more across the space. Spectators can also enjoy a spectacular view of the main event from any of the suites located on the second, third, and fifth levels of the Coliseum. In the suites, guests can use the intuitive user interface running on elegant TSW touch screen to easily control the displays and audio levels of the Saros® Sound Bars.
Every suite is controlled using the Crestron Virtual Control (VC-4) platform, which allows technical staff to deploy and update settings to the technology in every suite from one central location via a simple interface. “We’ve redeployed and reconfigured 45 rooms in just 20 minutes ahead of game time,” explains Dustin Bransford, Audio Visual Engineer at Rosendin Electric, the systems integrator for the project. “In the past this would have been impossible to achieve this with such ease.” At the Club level, fans can revel in any event from the Lou Galen Club Lounge, where numerous displays, a video wall, murals, and concessions create a captivating experience. Crestron DM NVX® AV-over-IP technology enables staff to customize video and audio content distributed throughout. On non-game days, the Lou Galen Club Lounge is used for formal presentations, leveraging Crestron AirMedia® wireless presentation technology to easily share content to the various displays. Additional conference rooms on this level feature an all-in-one DigitalMedia Presentation System and TSW touch screen, which enable presenters to control video, audio, and camera.
RESULTS
The Coliseum invested in a solution that not only solved an immediate need to improve game days for fans, but also equips the facility with a rock-solid technology foundation for the future, which includes hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics. Crestron provides a highly responsive, easy to manage system that can keep up with the fast-paced environment and often unpredictable situations that arise when hosting some of the world’s most prestigious events.