The AmericanAirlines Arena, located in Miami, FL, home to the NBA’s Miami Heat,
recently completed an entire audio-visual upgrade using Audinate’s Dante Audio-
over-IP networking solution for low-latency, multichannel audio routing and
distribution. The HEAT Group, the marketing and booking group within the
AmericanAirlines Arena, has spent the last 15 years renovating and expanding areas
of the arena. This latest technology upgrade not only included the arena bowl, but
also a recently built exterior performance area.

The 19,600 seat arena that sits on the Biscayne Bay waterfront hosts more than 80
live events annually, including major concerts, family shows and national
conferences. The new outdoor entertainment venue, Xfinity East Plaza (XEP) is a
23,000 square foot covered space located on the east side of the Arena. The initial
XEP planning focused on the careful placement of the DAS Audio loudspeaker
columns to provide the best possible directional sound coverage and quality.
Optimizing the system achieved the desired goals, but all of the upgrades had to be
done on a tight timeline.

Thankfully, Jorge Arronte, manager of arena sound and matrix for The HEAT Group,
was already familiar with the ease and speed of installing a Dante digital audio
network because of the upgrades done in the arena bowl.

Reconfiguring the system for different events is also greatly simplified. Since Dante
made life much easier inside the arena, there was no question the arena would use
it again for the XEP project. The savings by continuing to use Dante were
significant. The network cabling was abundant throughout the arena, which
minimized the time needed to open XEP to the public.

The core of the Dante network for XEP was centralized to a telecom room adjacent
to existing IT racks, which minimized cable runs to the Dante-enabled Lab.gruppen
Lake processing and amplification systems that power various loudspeakers and
stage monitors. As with inside, the sound quality and latency at XEP have been
widely praised, and the network has been used for live pre- and post-game
performances from Flo Rida, DJ Natty Rico, DJ Irie and many local bands.

Arronte notes that with Dante already functioning throughout the rest of the
building, the process of configuring, sending and receiving signals needed at XEP or
in the main control room takes a matter of seconds versus hours.

“That expediency is crucial on game nights, when things run especially fast,’ said
Arronte. “We recently had a request to add some music-activated visualization to an
LED screen behind a DJ on stage at XEP. I added a dual-channel receive unit, added
another Dante port to the switch, and it was up and running in less than a day –
much to the surprise of the executive who suggested the idea. These are the
reasons I am happily married to the Dante system.’