Meyer Sound sonic ‘sound’ force multiplier

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Kenny Lauer is the Strategic Advisor for Meyer Sound. He has been designing, transforming experiences for over two decades.

What uniquely qualifies Lauer to speak on arena and stadium fandom is that he ran the marketing and digital experiences for the National Basketball Association team – the Golden State Warriors – during their Championship years – “I got to see fandom at an incredible level belonging to someone and something much bigger than you. Hugging people that you didn’t even know like your second family. Really understanding how to use all your senses together to create an immersive experience, what it means to connect with the community, what fandom is like.”

Kenny Lauer has been at the forefront of using pioneering technologies to collapse distances between people for over 30 years. He serves as a Strategic Advisor to Meyer Sound focusing on transforming the sports and entertainment experiences through audio.

In a riveting chat with ‘Coliseum’, Kenny Lauer, Strategic Advisor, Meyer Sound, US, narrates how the NBA team Tampa Bay Lightning and Meyer Sound came together to bring the ‘thunder’ to the former’s residence – the Benchmark International Arena. How the venue’s sound system was not up to the mark. They had an old audio system, inconsistent audio coverage, unintelligible. He put in, “The fans couldn’t hear everything and not only that but when they did hear something they didn’t understand that and they couldn’t feel it. Sound should be a force multiplier. I mean sound is part of a flywheel, a fan experience that leads to revenue.” Meyer Sound helped create that ‘sound’ sound experience at the Benchmark International Arena.

Berkeley (US)-based Meyer Sound is the global leader and innovator in self-powered loudspeaker systems and active acoustics.
 

Benchmark International Arena

The 21,500-capacity Benchmark International Arena is a multipurpose arena in Tampa, Florida, United States, that has been used for ice hockey, basketball, arena football, concerts, and the other events. It serves as the home court of the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was earlier known as the Amalie Arena.

Kenny Lauer started off by stating, “Let’s look at what the Tampa Bay Lightning did. They didn’t look at what the problem was. They went back to what their mission was. What was important – engage, entertain and inspire. What was their belief? They did believe in the power of loyalty and revenue with fan engagement but they also believed that the Return On Investment (ROI) of a hockey ticket is memories.”
 

Sound Power

“The Tampa Bay Lightning started asking a lot of questions – What if sound could do this? What if sound could do that? What is a force multiplier? What if sound could create energy, behavior and emotion? What if sound can deliver more than the face value of a ticket? How do we elevate sound from being just infrastructure to being a force multiplier for memory, emotion and belonging.”
 

Behaviors

“You list the behaviors – we like to see more of fan energy, we like to reduce complaints, increase praise, we like to empower our creative team, give them more than a blunt brush and deepen retention. So, what is the fan going to do that demonstrates that behavior? What’s the sponsor going to say? What are the players on the ice, or on the court, or on the track going to exhibit to demonstrate that behavior that you want? If you see that kind of behavior then you know you are driving the kind of behavior you want that will solve the problem. So, now we have the problem to solve and we have the behavior to drive the next step which should be the easier step is how do we design for the behavior to happen. And in this case a lot had to do with picking the right partner.”

In order to attain the above the Tampa Bay Lightning decided to go with the company Meyer Sound that delivered some of the best loudspeakers in the world. It gave them the ability to do what they wanted – “But you also needed to align with a partner that understood their values, that understood what they were doing, that was in alignment with the higher level and Meyer Sound has done that. So, we were aligned both as a platform but also as a partner. So, we brought the ‘thunder’. We went with a large format – Panther. We have either way 12 Panthers and 149 speakers. We followed up with 15 down firing Leopards. We have Panthers, we have Leopards, we have a whole safari here in the arena. And we raised them up. They are beautiful and they created an amazing immersive experience. We cannot control what happens on the ice, what happens on the court. But, you certainly can have an effect on how the fans experience what is happening. You create a total holistic, immersive experience. You know if you go to a Tampa Bay game you should definitely go experience this.”
 

Lessons Learned

“The first is you have got to solve the right problem. Figure out what that problem is, make sure you are working on solving the right problem. Second, figure out what to design for, identify that and then design for that to happen. Third, pick up partners who cares. Of course, they have to be technically competent and they have the kind of equipment and to do what you want but they got to align in your values and then fourth, treat sound as an experience architecture and not just infrastructure.”
 

Wrap-up

Kenny Lauer concluded by stating, “The Tampa Bay Lightning proved is that you hear it right you don’t just hear it, you feel it. It’s not just vibrations, it’s sensations and we know that the fans don’t come to the arena for the Lightning queues, we know they don’t come for any of the audio matrix or the special layout. They don’t even come for the food. They come because they want to belong to something bigger. They come because they want to be with their second family and have an escape from the world for three hours. They come because they want to feel something. They come for the experience.”

Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.

Become a member of the only Global Sports Venue Alliance and connect with stadiums, arenas and experts from around the world. Apply for membership at coliseum-online.com/alliance and make use of the 365Coliseum Business.

• Tags »
• Kenny Lauer
• Meyer Sound

« Previous News: Azteca Stadium reopens after long hiatus
» Next News: India, Kazakhstan World Athletics shows’ hosts