By Staff Reporters
Industry News & Venue Technology
Main Facts
The landscape of minor league baseball is undergoing a massive cultural evolution. No longer content with serving merely as a warm-weather destination for America’s pastime, modern ballparks are increasingly being designed as multifaceted, year-round entertainment hubs. A prime example of this paradigm shift is The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan, Utah, the brand-new home of the Salt Lake Bees—the Triple-A affiliate of the Major League Baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels.
Engineered to transcend the limitations of traditional sports architecture, this state-of-the-art venue was built from the ground up to host much more than just baseball games. Its calendar is designed to seamlessly pivot between professional athletic competitions, large-scale live music concerts, community movie nights, festivals, and corporate gatherings. To bring this ambitious vision to life, ownership turned to technology integration powerhouse OneRevel to curate and deploy a comprehensive, turnkey audiovisual ecosystem.
At the beating heart of this sophisticated technology deployment lies an advanced audio infrastructure anchored by the Powersoft UNICA power amplification platform. Working in tandem with Fulcrum Acoustics loudspeakers, Dante networking, and Powersoft’s ArmoníaPlus management software, the sound system represents a masterclass in modern acoustic engineering. It addresses the immense challenges of a sprawling, multi-use outdoor destination: maintaining pristine sonic clarity, delivering even coverage from the front-row seats to the outer concourses, and complying with stringent municipal noise ordinances amidst a rapidly developing urban neighborhood.
Chronology: The Journey to America First Square
The realization of The Ballpark at America First Square was not an isolated project; rather, it represents the next chapter in a long-standing relationship between technology integrators, venue developers, and local sports institutions.
The Foundation of a Partnership
For years, OneRevel has cultivated a trusted partnership with the Miller Group—the esteemed ownership entity behind both the Salt Lake Bees and the NBA’s Utah Jazz. This relationship was forged through previous, highly successful audiovisual projects for the Jazz and the Bees’ historical home at Smith’s Ballpark. However, when the Miller Group decided to construct a brand-new facility in South Jordan, Utah, the scale and complexity of the assignment shifted dramatically.
Transitioning from Stadium to Destination
Unlike historical stadium builds where OneRevel was brought in to handle isolated packages or specific subsystems, America First Square marked a major milestone for the integration firm. For the first time on a baseball venue of this magnitude, OneRevel was tasked with delivering the complete technology package under a unified strategy. This holistic approach required synchronizing the audio design directly with expansive LED video displays and complex digital signage networks.
Design, Integration, and Real-Time Adaptation
The timeline of the project demanded intense cross-departmental coordination from the initial blueprint phase all the way through commissioning. Because the surrounding America First Square development is a living, breathing commercial and residential zone, the timeline did not stop when the stadium doors officially opened.
As new multi-family residential complexes and commercial businesses continue to sprout up in the immediate vicinity, OneRevel’s engineering teams have remained on-site and on-call. They have continuously fine-tuned the audio coverage, adjusted speaker directivity, and refined system presets to match the evolving acoustic geography of the neighborhood—proving that modern venue integration is an ongoing, dynamic process rather than a one-time installation.
Supporting Data & Technical Architecture
Designing an audio system for a hybrid sports and entertainment venue requires wrestling with staggering logistical and acoustical variables. At America First Square, the technical demands spanned physical space constraints, networking protocols, processing power, and hardware integration.
Overcoming Architectural and Environmental Hurdles
In a standard ballpark, audio designers face a relatively straightforward challenge: project high-SPL (Sound Pressure Level) commentary and music forward from the outfield and press box into the tiered seating bowl. America First Square shattered this traditional model.
- Comprehensive Spatial Coverage: The sound reinforcement footprint could not be limited to the seating bowl. Engineers had to ensure uniform, high-fidelity coverage across open-air concourses, luxury suites, VIP hospitality areas, concession lines, and secondary outdoor plazas where community members congregate.
- Acoustical Spill and Municipal Compliance: Situated in a high-growth corridor of South Jordan, the venue faces strict local noise ordinances. As residential buildings move closer to the property line, the audio system must project maximum intelligibility inward toward patrons while tightly containing acoustic energy to prevent neighborhood disruption.
- Rack Space Optimization: Much of the venue’s core technology is housed in centralized equipment rooms, while other segments rely on distributed equipment racks scattered across remote zones of the facility. This created a severe premium on physical space, requiring high-density amplification that could pack massive power output into a minimal footprint.
The Powersoft UNICA Solution
To solve these multi-layered technical challenges, OneRevel selected the Powersoft UNICA power amplification platform as the foundational anchor of the entire audio design.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| THE UNICA AUDIO ECOSYSTEM |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
v v
+--------------------+ +--------------------+
| Fulcrum Acoustics | <===================> | Powersoft UNICA |
| Loudspeakers | (FIR Optimization) | Amplifiers |
+--------------------+ +--------------------+
^ ^
| |
+------------------+ +------------------+
| |
v v
+-----------------------+
| Dante Network & DSP |
| ArmoníaPlus Software |
+-----------------------+- Power-to-Size Ratio: UNICA’s exceptional power density allowed OneRevel to consolidate amplification hardware. By squeezing significant output channels into a compact chassis, the engineering team successfully minimized the physical footprint required in both centralized and distributed equipment racks.
- Dante Network Integration: Leveraging native Dante audio-over-IP networking, the system routes pristine digital audio signals seamlessly across long distances throughout the sprawling stadium footprint without signal degradation.
- Onboard DSP and Power Stability: Reliability was a primary KPI for the venue. UNICA’s sophisticated onboard Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and resilient power management ensure that even in the event of minor power fluctuations or interruptions, critical system configurations, tuning presets, and safety limiter settings are never lost.
- The Fulcrum Acoustics Synergy: OneRevel leaned heavily on Powersoft’s long-standing compatibility with Fulcrum Acoustics loudspeakers. By pairing the UNICA platform directly with Fulcrum speaker designs, the integrators utilized advanced Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering to optimize phase response, linearize frequency response, and maximize the acoustic performance of every loudspeaker in the venue.
- ArmoníaPlus Centralized Control: Managing over 20 discrete amplifiers distributed across a massive property could easily become an administrative nightmare. Using Powersoft’s proprietary ArmoníaPlus software interface, technicians are able to view, monitor, manage, and troubleshoot the entire multi-zone network from a single, centralized dashboard.
Official Responses and Industry Perspectives
The success of a venue of this magnitude hinges on the collaboration between visionary ownership, expert system integrators, and elite hardware manufacturers. Key stakeholders weighed in on what makes the America First Square installation a benchmark for modern stadium audio.
The Integrator’s Perspective: Shay Taylor, COO of OneRevel
Shay Taylor, Chief Operations Officer for OneRevel, emphasized that the core challenge of the project was designing for multiplicity rather than a single use-case.
"What made this project unique was that we weren’t just designing for baseball," Taylor stated. "The vision from the beginning was to create a venue that could host concerts, movies in the park, and community events alongside baseball. That meant every technology decision had to support a much broader range of experiences."
Elaborating on the acoustic complexities of the venue, Taylor noted that the audio profile had to follow the patron’s journey:
"The sound couldn’t just work for the field. It had to work everywhere because people are experiencing the venue in different ways depending on the event. Whether they’re watching a baseball game, attending a concert, or walking through a holiday event, the audio needs to perform consistently throughout the entire facility."
Regarding the selection of the core amplification hardware, Taylor pointed directly to the strategic advantages provided by Powersoft:
"The entire project was built around the UNICA platform. The power-to-size ratio was a major factor because much of the stadium is served from centralized equipment racks. We needed a platform that delivered significant output while minimizing rack space."
Furthermore, Taylor praised the long-term reliability and manufacturer support that cemented OneRevel’s nine-year working relationship with Powersoft:
"If power is interrupted, we don’t lose our control or DSP settings. Having that level of stability is extremely important for a venue that’s expected to operate continuously… During project execution, Powersoft has always been responsive. From the design phase through installation and commissioning, they’ve been available whenever we’ve needed support. Even during this project, when additional areas were added late in the schedule, they were able to respond quickly and help us keep the project moving."
Implications for the Future of Venue Design
The successful opening and ongoing operation of The Ballpark at America First Square signal a clear blueprint for the future of sports and entertainment architecture. As cities continue to densify and real estate developers prioritize mixed-use "entertainment districts" over isolated sports monoliths, the technological demands placed on venues will only multiply.
1. The Death of Single-Purpose Architecture
Venues that rely solely on 70 home baseball games a year to justify their existence are increasingly economically unviable. America First Square demonstrates that modern stadiums must be chameleons—capable of hosting a Triple-A baseball game on Tuesday, a regional rock concert on Thursday, and a family-friendly movie night on Saturday. This shift requires integrators to design audio systems with the dynamic range, high SPL, and pristine fidelity typically reserved for dedicated performing arts centers, rather than legacy sports horns.
2. Acoustic Stewardship in Urban Environments
As residential development creeps closer to sports infrastructure, the traditional approach of "turning the volume up" to overcome crowd noise is no longer legally or socially acceptable. The integration at America First Square highlights the critical importance of smart, steerable, and tightly controlled distributed audio networks. By utilizing high-efficiency amplification platforms like UNICA paired with advanced DSP and FIR filtering, modern venues can achieve the acoustic impact required for live rock concerts while strictly respecting municipal property lines and decibel caps.
3. Holistic Ecosystem Integration
OneRevel’s ability to deliver a unified technology package encompassing audio, LED displays, and digital signage under a single operational strategy proves that silos in venue technology integration are breaking down. When audio engineers, video display architects, and network administrators operate under a synchronized master plan, the end-user experience—the fan in the seat, suite, or concourse—reaches unprecedented levels of immersion.
Ultimately, The Ballpark at America First Square stands as a testament to what is possible when forward-thinking ownership, expert integration, and cutting-edge audio engineering converge. As the Salt Lake Bees take the field and the surrounding South Jordan district continues to grow, the soundscape of America First Square will remain sharp, balanced, and ready for whatever cultural event comes next.
