Before the first whistle blew at the new home of the University of Mississippi Rebel basketball teams, preparation to complete The Pavilion at Ole Miss was well underway after ground was broken in 2014.
The $96.5 million, 225,000 square foot multipurpose arena is able to seat 9,500 screaming fans during every game and is home to the largest center-hung video display board (2,400 square foot) in college sports.
As part of the overall construction of the facility, Chicago Flyhouse was called in to install an acoustical baffle system across the entire arena to provide effective sound absorption quality; the installed area required nearly 16,000 square feet of vertical baffles and 50,000 square feet of horizontal baffles. Track and carriers for blackout curtains along with a temporary half house curtain system were also part of the installation project.
To gain access to the installation area, the boom lifts had to maneuver through the lower rigging steel of the entire arena which was a much smaller area than the average installation space for acoustical baffles. This meant instead of the lift boom easily swinging a large swath of area throughout the process, it needed to be lowered down after a few panels were installed and brought back up to the next section.
Even through this small challenge, Flyhouse was able to complete the project and have it ready for the first game of the year.
