Celebration Square

Mississauga’s Civic Square was uninviting, poorly laid out—bisected by a road—and had inadequate infrastructure (a portable stage was used). Crowd control for the increasingly large events was difficult, and there were noise complaints from the residents of condominiums surrounding the square.

The solution, designed by CS+P Architects, was to eliminate the road and build over a parking garage to create the 6.6 acre Celebration Square, featuring a fountain pool that converts to a skating rink, a farmers’ market, a 300-seat amphitheatre, and gardens. A permanent covered main stage, with high performance sound, lighting, rigging systems, and a pair of 15'x28' video screens, now supports performances for up to 50,000 people. Systems were designed by Brandon Booker of Novita Techne to be operated by both community groups and professionals.

For sound control, Meyer Sound MILO line arrays were chosen for their very tight dispersion pattern. M3D-SUB cardioid subwoofers control the back radiation of the low frequencies. Listening tests have confirmed their effectiveness, showing that the volume drops in excess of 20 dB behind the stage, easily muffled by traffic noise. Meyer front fills help to ensure a full concert experience for those near the stage, and for larger audiences, distributed Renkus-Heinz IC Live digitally-steerable arrays extend the audio coverage and intelligibility. The IC Live are an aesthetic fit with the slim lighting poles specified by Paul Cravit, principal at CS+P Architects.

The stage, amphitheatre, skating rink, and underground tour bus area are interlinked by sound, video, and communications systems. An Optocore fibre optic network was chosen for its low fixed latency and to eliminate potential grounding issues in such a large venue with multiple sources of electrical power. Optocore is able to embed Ethernet and CobraNet in the data stream, and it can accept connections from any MADI-based console brought in by a visiting production, as well as the house’s own DiGiCo SD8 digital desk. Additional access nodes are onstage for monitors, nearby for a broadcast or mobile recording truck, and for the amphitheatre.

A Crestron-based control system, controllable via a hand-held tablet, ties together the Optocore network, the DSPs for the reinforcement systems, zone controls, wireless systems, and media players. This allows the main stage systems, amphitheatre systems, and delay speakers to be used independently, all in tandem, or any combination thereof. There are several password-managed user levels, from a basic operator interface to full administration.

The amphitheatre, which is primarily used by community groups, has ELAR IP67 color-changing LED light fixtures. They were chosen for their light weight, available built-in colors, and rugged outdoor rating. They may be used on the main stage as well.

Mitsubishi LED screens, integrated with the performance systems, are a dynamic feature enabling multimedia presentations, digital art, and film screenings. Jeremy Kramer worked closely with CS+P Architects and the City to determine size and configuration appropriate to the architecture. Revenue-generating gateway signs at the primary entrance of the City Hall/Celebration Square complex welcome and inform passerby.

Creative Team
CS+P Architects
Novita Techne, Theatre Consultants

Kramer Design Associates, Digital Media Signage Consultants

Equipment
1 Optocore Fibre Optic and UTP digital audio network
4 BSS London BLU digital signal processors with CobraNet
2 Crestron AV2 Central control system processors
1 DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console
1 APB DynaSonics H1020 ProRack mixing console
8 Meyer Sound M3D-SUB directional cardioid subwoofers
20 Meyer Sound MILO Curvilinear array loudspeakers
12 Renkus Heinz IC Live digitally controlled column loudspeakers
15 ELAR RGBAW 180W IP67 LED PAR
2 Mitsubishi LED Main Video Boards (16mm SMD-Surface Mount Diode)

10 Mitsubishi LED Ribbon Boards (-22mm RGB Lamp LED pitch)

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