USA – Back in 2025, Formetco won the tender to redesign the sound systems across multiple Florida State University sports facilities, selecting Allen & Heath as its installation partner.
At the request of the FSU team, the project’s goal was to create an AV system that would deliver the best possible experience for both players and spectators. To achieve this, Formetco installed Avantis Solo consoles and AHM processors across three of the university’s stadiums, ensuring a future-proof and easily expandable solution.
“Allen & Heath has been a workhorse for us,” says Bobby Norton, Audio Engineer at Formetco, “so no matter what design I want to do, it’s always going to be the best fit.”
Both the softball and baseball stadiums feature an Avantis Solo and DT168 expander. The Solo console offers 64 channels within a space-efficient footprint, expandable to 96 channels with Allen & Heath’s dPack add-on. The DT168s provide rugged, remote I/O to the Dante-equipped mixer with 16 additional microphone preamps and 8 line outs. The systems run on Allen & Heath’s XCVI FPGA engine at 96kHz, delivering high-quality audio with just 0.7ms of latency.
“For me, as an audio engineer in a previous life,” comments Wes McCall, Assistant Athletics Director of Information Technology at FSU, “clarity is super important. Being able to hear what you’re supposed to in every single part of the venue is something that we’ve never had in a lot of our [spaces].”
Alongside audio quality, simplicity was also a key requirement. Allen & Heath’s focus on delivering powerful technology that remains approachable for non-technical users was particularly valuable in meeting this need.
“Athletic facilities sit at that perfect crosspoint for us,” notes Samantha Potter, Manager of Commercial Audio at Allen & Heath. “You have very technical staff who perhaps design the system or are using it every week, and then you also have the exact opposite using that same space.”
“The teams were able to come in and turn on the systems, plug in an iPhone, plug in a laptop, and play music for their batting practice or their workouts. Just that simplicity and ease-of-use is something that we were looking for on the control side, which we didn’t have before.” adds McCall. “But for somebody who has a technical background, I like to be in the nitty gritty of everything. It’s got those integral details I want to be available. I can bring out that tiny bit of EQ that’s causing harsh feedback in one spot.”
Over at the lacrosse complex, an AHM-16 matrix processor sits at the heart of the audio system, bringing the same 96kHz audio quality as the other facilities. An IP8 provides hands-on control via 8 motorised faders and 23 assignable SoftKeys, while a DT164-W expander provides additional mic preamps and outputs in a versatile wall-mount design.
With an eye to the future, the audio systems have been designed to remain flexible and adaptable. As the university’s needs evolve.
“We can scale, we can scale back, we can expand later down the road,” Potter notes of the Allen & Heath ecosystem. “It’s almost like little Lego pieces where we can pick and choose what we need because it can fit the size of any project.”
The next stage of the collaboration will be at the university’s volleyball facilities, where Formetco plans on installing a Qu-5D digital audio mixer, featuring a built-in 16×16 Dante interface, and a DT168 I/O expander.
