Florida State University refreshes sports venue audio with Allen & Heath systems

Background and context

Table of Contents

Florida State University (FSU) has completed a multi-venue audio upgrade across several athletics facilities, aiming to improve sound quality and usability for both game-day operations and everyday training.

The project, awarded in 2025, was led by integrator Formetco, which selected Allen & Heath as the core audio platform. The rollout currently covers softball, baseball and lacrosse facilities, with further work planned at volleyball venues.

FSU’s brief focused on achieving consistent intelligibility across large outdoor spaces, while keeping control interfaces accessible for both technical and non-technical staff.

Key announcement

Formetco has standardised on Allen & Heath’s Avantis Solo digital mixing consoles and AHM series processors as the backbone of the new systems.

Softball and baseball stadiums: Each venue now uses an Avantis Solo console paired with a DT168 Dante I/O expander. The compact desks provide 64 input channels as standard, expandable to 96 channels with an optional processing add-on, and run on Allen & Heath’s XCVI FPGA engine at 96kHz with low-latency performance.
Dante-based infrastructure: DT168 stageboxes add 16 microphone preamps and 8 line outputs over Dante, allowing flexible input and output placement around the venues while keeping cabling centralised.
Lacrosse complex: An AHM-16 matrix processor serves as the main audio hub, also operating at 96kHz. An IP8 remote controller provides eight motorised faders and assignable soft keys for hands-on operation, while a DT164-W wall-mount expander delivers additional inputs and outputs where needed.

According to FSU’s Assistant Athletics Director of Information Technology, clarity and coverage across all seating areas and field zones were key priorities, alongside simplified workflows for staff who are not audio specialists.

Allen & Heath notes that the systems have been configured to support quick, straightforward tasks — such as plugging in a phone or laptop to play music during practice — as well as deeper control for engineers who want detailed access to equalisation and routing.

Industry impact

The deployment reflects a wider trend in collegiate sports facilities towards networked, Dante-based audio ecosystems that can scale with venue requirements.

By using a common platform across multiple facilities, FSU and Formetco have created a template that can be replicated or modified for future projects. The next phase is expected to bring a Qu-5D digital mixer with built-in 16×16 Dante and a DT168 I/O expander into the university’s volleyball facilities.

This approach allows the athletics department to maintain similar operational workflows, training requirements and support structures across different venues, reducing complexity for staff who move between facilities.

Why this matters

For event technology professionals, FSU’s upgrade highlights several ongoing priorities in sports and live-event environments:

Consistent audio quality: High sample-rate processing and low-latency networking are becoming baseline expectations in stadium and field applications, not just in touring.
Mixed user profiles: Systems must accommodate both experienced engineers and occasional operators, with interfaces that can be simplified without limiting access to advanced functions.
Scalability and standardisation: Selecting a single ecosystem across multiple venues can streamline maintenance, training and future expansion.

The project also underlines how higher education institutions are treating sports venues as multi-use event spaces, requiring infrastructure that supports everything from practice sessions and campus events to broadcast-ready match days.

Further technical information on Avantis, AHM processors and Dante-enabled expanders used in the FSU project is available via Allen & Heath’s official website at allen-heath.com.