Upgraded to suit modern patrons’ needs, the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum officially reopens

As reliable WiFi and cellular coverage are often lacking in college sporting venues, Arup’s design team sought to provide an exceptional wireless and cellular experience for the entire stadium. Facing a series of design challenges, including maintaining the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s historic façade and character, Arup implemented a series of innovation solutions. These included finding less conspicuous locations to mount wireless access points by placing them around lights, ultimately eliminating the need to mount objects on the historic façade. The team also implemented a bowl-wide under-seat WiFi coverage method that mitigated the issue of interference caused by the slope and incline of the stadium’s bowl. To best ensure that the wireless and cellular infrastructure was flexible, Arup provided technology consulting services that enabled USC to unite a previously siloed network and operate different systems from one converged network.

Arup provided mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP), information technology and communications (IT&C), audio-visual (AV) and acoustics services on the Coliseum’s new Scholarship Club Tower. Arup collaborated with the full design and construction team to protect an optimized line of sight for fans, overcoming the constraints of the new tower’s short floor-to-floor heights and a non-vertically stacked building design. The need for ventilation ducts and piping to support numerous full-service kitchens resulted in a compact services-intensive system that required intense collaboration with the design and contracting team.

To ensure that the fan experience was optimized both for patrons of the stadium as well as those viewing games and concerts remotely, Arup provided AV services for the whole stadium, including the sophisticated modern press box inside the Scholarship Club Tower. As there is a high intensity of broadcast services necessary to make the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum operational during large events, Arup delivered an upgraded control room and production and broadcast facilities. These new facilities will meet the video capture criteria needs of different types of broadcast networks. In addition, Arup upgraded the Coliseum’s audiovisual components, providing new scoreboards, game clocks, timers, and ribbon boards, as well as new displays and speakers. Undergirding all of the technology improvements was a significant electrical system upgrade to improve reliability and capacity.

The grand reopening kicks off the beginning of the 2019/2020 football season, with the first USC game on August 31 and the first Rams game on August 24.