Boston College Harrington Field

When Boston College had plans for the development of a new baseball and softball field in Brighton, it became apparent that high quality sound and neighborhood noise control were going to be especially important to this project. CHA Companies, the design firm, hired Acentech to provide sound system design, acoustics and community noise studies for this much-needed upgrade to BC’s athletics program.

The expandable, 1,000-seat baseball and softball fields spectator seating areas each have a Public Address (PA) amplified electronic sound system to be used only for announcements prior to warm-up and during intercollegiate games. Each field is controlled separately, with a state-of-the-art system designed to minimize the impact on adjacent residences. Smaller speakers cover the concessions areas, dugouts, press boxes, and officials locker room. The new system covers the spectator seating areas, providing uniformity and a high degree of speech intelligibility.

Acentech provided extensive modeling of loudspeaker coverage and predictions of sound reaching the neighboring residential community, and measured typical existing sound levels in the community to provide a baseline. These predictions were included in permitting documents to the City, and were presented to the community in a series of meetings that helped to establish trust and gain support. Final measurements were made during commissioning of the loudspeaker system and helped to establish operating guidelines for sound operators and validate earlier predictions.