Just a football’s throw from the Meadowlands Sports Complex stands American Dream, the second-largest indoor shopping mall in the United States. Beyond its roster of 450 stores and more than 65 dining and drinking locations, the sprawling facility also offers the country’s largest indoor waterpark, North America’s only indoor ski resort, and the largest indoor theme park in the Western Hemisphere. Now, American Dream has added one more reason to “go to the mall”: Dream Live Performing Arts Center, a three-tiered, nearly 2,800-capacity live performance venue that opened its doors with an L-Acoustics L Series loudspeaker system in place, designed and installed by Boulevard Carroll Entertainment Group.
The project transformed a long-dormant space into a state-of-the-art PAC with high-end audio, video, and lighting that caters to private parties and corporate events as well as top-name concerts and theatrical productions. According to Sean Conner, general manager of Dream Live, the venue underwent a $65 million build-out and now features top-of-the-line IMAG capability, including six RED cinema cameras used for live performances. “It’s also set up perfectly for television and live broadcasting,” he says. “It’s a big space, yet still feels very intimate.”
L-Acoustics Was the First and Only Choice
Familiar with the L-Acoustics reputation, American Dream’s management reached out to the manufacturer directly last November requesting a system design for Dream Live, prompting L-Acoustics to turn to Boulevard Carroll, its Certified Provider for the region. Anthony Fischetta, Boulevard Carroll CFO, along with head of audio and lead designer Daryl Moore, president Anthony Cioffi, and project manager Joe Smith, visited the space and partnered with L-Acoustics on a Soundvision design for the venue. The design was then presented to the mall’s owners and, in turn, to the construction team overseeing the entire project.
“Dream Live is the first proper event space that American Dream was building,” Fischetta recalls. “They leaned on their construction crew that services all its malls to oversee the entire project, and gave us a very tight timeline to install. But our team went above and beyond to get it all done in time.”
Soundvision Attains Success in a Tricky Space
The space had sat empty since the mall opened more than 20 years earlier: “bare bones, cinder blocks, and rebar sticking out of the floor,” Cioffi recalls. Conner joined Dream Live in March to help bring the venue online, after new owners invested to expand and upgrade a space that, as Fischetta notes, “was built 20 years before the infrastructure was designed, so we were limited on what we could change.” With nowhere to add holes, wires, or speakers where the design called for, Boulevard Carroll routed cable into the balcony and under-balcony and adapted the system to existing rigging points from two decades earlier, maneuvering conduit layouts and fly points into position for the Soundvision model until the rig came within inches of its target despite very tight constraints. “Some of the arrays are literally half an inch off of the walls,” Fischetta reveals. “Everything is as light and tight as it can possibly be, due to having to work with existing points and existing structure.”
L Series and A Series Perform in Harmony for Blanketed Coverage
Although Boulevard Carroll has carried L-Acoustics L2 and L2D speakers in its rental inventory for some time, Dream Live marks the first installation using the systems. The L Series main arrays include one L-Acoustics L2 over one L2D per side. “There are eight KS21i subs under the stage, plus three KS28 flown behind each main array,” says Daryl Moore, Boulevard Carroll’s head of audio and lead designer.
Front-fills consist of six A10i Focus spread across the stage lip. Over-balcony fills include four arrays of one A15i Focus over one A15i Wide, two per side, addressing the far left and right balcony seats. Under-balcony fills feature an arc of six A15i Wide mounted just under the front edge of the balcony, with a second, concentric ring of twelve 8Xi coaxial systems mounted farther back on the under-balcony ceiling “because the balcony is so deep.”
“There are speakers everywhere,” Moore continues. “Every inch of seating is perfectly covered. It’s pretty impressive. Because the balcony sticks out so far, the main arrays don’t really get under there, so they rely on two separate rows of under-balcony speakers.”
LA7.16i amplified controllers drive the main arrays and the over-balcony and under-balcony fills, while LA12X power the front-fills and subs.
Boulevard Carroll also delivered a full audio package that included two Yamaha DM7 consoles with Rios, Shure Axiom Wireless, Shure PSM 1000, and ClearCom antenna distribution.
The team credits Dream Live’s construction crew, who were meticulous in treating the walls and flooring. The results surprised them. “When we were initially looking at it, the entire place was just concrete, and it’s not very deep, so you’d expect a lot of reflection off of the back walls,” Fischetta remarks. “But they did a lot of treatment, either wood slats or Homasote paneling, behind the decorative wood slats. And to the credit of Sully Sullivan at L-Acoustics, who came out to tune it, he did a great job with it as well.”
Conner previously worked for Live Nation in the New York market for two decades, and he declares that Dream Live PAC sounds “as good, if not better, than just about any venue that I’ve ever worked in. I couldn’t be happier with L-Acoustics, and the sound in this venue is second to none. The layout of the system provides optimal coverage and clarity at every level. Every last little detail was taken into account when designing the room.”
The Best Possible Outcome Comes from One Source
Dream Live had its soft opening in March, followed by a 10-date run of Dog Man: The Musical that marked its official launch, then shows with British pop-punk act As It Is and country singer Scotty McCreery, a New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and a full fall lineup to be announced in September.
“The venue’s management put their money where their mouth was,” Cioffi declares. “They wanted the best possible outcome for audio, and they got it. They’re super pleased with the results, and when they kick off ticketed, rolling events, they’re going to be a very popular venue because the production value of audio is absolutely first-rate.”
“I’ve been working with Boulevard Carroll for more than a decade now, and they’ve been a great partner in my previous venues and other endeavors in the live entertainment industry,” Conner says. “They’re just top notch across the board. Much like L-Acoustics. I’ve used their systems in other venues and it’s absolutely top-of-the-line gear.”
Cioffi sees the new L-Acoustics system at Dream Live as a sign of where live music venues are headed. “This is the way that all venues are going to have to go. It’s not just putting a PA up because it fits in the room. It has to transform the room, and L-Acoustics is very much at the forefront of that.”
For more information on Dream Live, please visit www.americandream.com/venue/dream-live-performing-arts-center. More information on Boulevard Carroll is available at www.boulevardcarroll.com.
Please visit L-Acoustics at www.l-acoustics.com.
