PA from the centre, light from all sides – LD Systems and Cameo breathe new life into the Hull Ice Arena

The Hull Ice Arena in Kingston upon Hull, England, is an ice skating and hockey stadium and until 2015 was home to the Hull Stingrays in the Elite Ice Hockey League, the highest ice hockey league in the UK. The British music elite have also played here – from Oasis to Robbie Williams and Ed Sheeran. After Hull Stingrays had to file for bankruptcy in 2015, the Olympic ice rink was used for leisure and semi-professional ice skating for a few years until the arena was temporarily closed in March 2020 and renovated for a seven-figure sum. In addition to a new ice rink and renovated changing rooms and toilet facilities, the Hull Ice Arena has recently also been lit up in new sound and light. JRG Productions relied completely on LD Systems for the PA, while 80 Cameo spotlights are used for the lighting.

PA

The Hull Arena offers around 2,000 seats, with a covered ice surface for concerts, boxing events, conferences and trade fairs. In fact, there is space for up to 3,750 people. Before the renovations, the sound from the in-house PA was not convincing, partly due to the age of the system, partly due to the center cluster design. The existing trussing situation posed particular challenges for JRG Productions’ planning, as the installation of additional trusses or rigging points was not possible due to budget and timing constraints.

The solution: a centre array of LD Systems STINGER 15 G3 full-range speakers and STINGER SUB 18 G3 subwoofers, supplemented by STINGER 10 G3 speakers as circumferential, also flown infill systems. “The original PA was also based on a centre cluster, but without infills, which resulted in uneven coverage of the ice surface and was barely able to reach the grandstands,” explains Jason Rattle from JRG Productions.

“With the new LD Systems STINGER Center array and the additional STINGER infills, we were able to solve this problem. In addition, the entire package of centre array, infills and Cameo lighting cost only slightly more than originally planned for the single centre array.”
Jason Rattle

Thanks to the connectivity of the DSP-K range of amplifiers, JRG Productions are able to remotely connect to the P.A. system and make changes to system settings if required. This also offers the venue peace of mind knowing that issues that may arise over coming years can be diagnosed in minutes online and without the costs associated to site visits.

Lighting

JRG Productions fully relied on the all-rounder capabilities of the Cameo FLAT PRO 7 G2 RGBWA LED spotlights to illuminate the ice rink. The IP65 rated fixtures were specifically selected to provide the venue with a long term, reliable installation within what can be a wet and humid environment. The spotlights distributed throughout the hall are controlled via the Cameo DVC Pro software and can be controlled individually if required. This allows individual areas to be illuminated separately, as well as creating dynamic beam and chase effects for concerts or ice skating events.

“The operational team have been particularly impressed with the DVC software. They are now able to produce their own scenes and chases for special events in house, without the need to recruit specialist lighting contractors”
Jason Rattle

JRG Solutions used solutions from Adam Hall Cables and Riggatec rigging hardware for the installation and cabling of loudspeakers, spotlights and peripheral devices.